STRAW ON FIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 July 1940, Page 4

STRAW ON FIRE

FIREMEN’S DIFFICULTIES. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, July 15. Several hundred bales of straw were destroyed or damaged by a fire which broke out in a storage shed of Ernest and Herbert Craig, Ltd. wood, coal, and general merchants, in Parnell road, shortly before 1 o’clock this afternoon. The shed itself, which is an old corrugated iron structure, with a wooden framework, was slightly damaged. In spite of the difficulty caused by heavy clouds of acrid smoke from the burning straw, the fire was confined to one building. Both sides of the building were packed almost to the roof with straw. Four motor-lorries, a horse-dray, several dozen bags of salt, heaps of sacks, and machinery, were stored within reach of the flames. Small heaps of firewood stored against the sides of the building also were endangered, as were the sleepers of the railway line which crosses the building at one end.

Hindered because the fire was burning beneath 14ft of straw along most of the length of the building, the firemen were fully occupied for more than two hours in reaching the seat of the fire. Early in the afternoon gas-masks had to be used, and men who were not so equipped had frequently to be relieved inside the building. Three hours after the outbreak was first noticed two leads of hose were still being played on the smouldering straw, which had not been completely extinguished. The building was insured with the South British Insprance Company for £BOO. The firm had no insurances on its stocks and no details were available of the insurance on goods stored for other owners.