FIRE OUTBREAKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 February 1937, Page 14

FIRE OUTBREAKS

WELLINGTON FACTORY. ’ [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, February 20. A heavy electric pressing iron left on in the workroom of Leo Blake and Company, clothing manufacturers, caused dense smoke to issue from Hope Gibbons’s building in Dixon Street shortly after 11 o’clock last night. A section of the building narrowly escaped being destroyed. The smoke came from bolts of cloth about tlie pressing tables, and six engines were rushed to the scene. The firemen had great difficulty in. ventilating the building to let out the heat, alid Firemen H. Tobin was overcome before he could don a respirator. He was taken to the hospital. Nearly an hour later, Foreman J. McKenzie collapsed when carrying out salvage operations, and was also removed to the hospital. The fire burnt through into Hope Gibbons’s bulk store on the ground floor, and into F. Lee and Company’s workshop above. Parts of bicycles and radio sets were stored on the ground floor, but little damage is reported there, as the stock was covered with tarpaulins while the fire was being fought. The Government placement offices on the first floor were filled with smoke. On the second floor, a number of shelves were burnt in a corner, but the damage was confined to these and to several bolts of Cloth, which were singed. The damage done was mostly caused by smoke and water. It is understood that the building and its contents were fully insured.

RICCARTON HOUSE. CHRISTCHURCH, February 21. While he sat talking to his wife in the front of the house, the kitchen at the home of Mr. B. C. Penney, at 75 Hinau Street, Riccarton, was alight this morning and burning fiercely. Falling embers from an incinerator caught a coconut matting and the flames spread rapidly, but it was not until neighbours rushed in that Mr. and Mrs. Penney knew anything of the blaze. The back quarters were soon within the grip of the fire and were destroyed by the time the brigade arrived. The house was a modern five-room-ed single-storey one, built of wood. It was insured with the State Fire Office for £1220. The furniture was insured for £450 with the Union Assurance Society, Ltd. The Brigade had some trouble in obtaining water to fight the fire, having to draw it from the Avon with between 1500 and 2000 feet of hose.

BAND INSTRUMENTS DESTROYED. CHRISTCHURCH. February 20. Approximately £2OOO damage was done by fire in a store owned by Mr. T. \V. Barrow, butcher, at the rear of his shop premises at 132 Armagh street this morning. Included in the property destroyed was £BOO worth of band instruments and equipment belonging to Derry’s Military Band, whose headquarters were in a. room on the second storey. The fire started near the stairs, and the flames burned through to the floor above, destroying the room occupied by the band. It was first noticed at (i. 19 a.m.. and when the Central Fire Brigade arrived the band room was a mass of flames. ■ The building was-badly damaged. It was insured for only £370. and the band will lose heavily. The bandmaster, Captain W. S. King after a survey of the damage, said that the band would have to decide what to do about its future. |