A TOTAL LOSS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20137, 5 January 1940, Page 5

A TOTAL LOSS

21 TONS OF HAY FIRE DESTROYS STORE WAIROA BRIGADE’S TASK (Special to the Herald.) WAIROA, this day. Twenty-one tons of hay stored by the Wairoa Co-Operative Dairy Company, Limited, for the use of its suppliers in the winter months went up in smoke yesterday, when fire destroyed a store owned by the Wairoa Harbour Board in the vicinity of the meat works. The building was totally destroyed. The first intimation that the building was on fire was the appearance of dense columns of smoke issuing from it. The alarfn was given by Mr. W. Marshall, engineer at the works, at 10.20 a.m., and the Wairoa Volunteer Fire Brigade, under Superintendent W. Bainbridge, was soon on the scene, there being a full muster. " By the time the brigade arrived, however, the fire had affirm hold. Flames and volumes of smoke were issuing through the top of the building, and the terrific heat made it difficult to approach the building. The store is situated on a wharf and parts of this were also alight. The brigade experienced difficulty in getting the engine close enough, to the river to pump, a steep bank making the task most difficult. This was eventually accomplished, and little time was lost in getting a lead on to the flames. There was. however, little chance of saving the building or its contents, owing to the fact that the firemen were prevented by the flames from entering. When the building collapsed effort-’, were concentrated on hurling ihe blazing hay into the river in an effort to save the wharf, which the firemen succeeded in accomplishing. It was four hours before the fire wls eventually extinguished. The fire, it is thought, was cause-.I by spontaneous combustion. The hay had been baled and stored in the shed only a few days previously, and the loss to tire dairy company is fairly serious as there had been no opportunity of taking out any insurance. Perhaps a more serious aspect of the loss, however, is that the hay had been stored for subsequent sale to suppliers in the event of a shortage of waiter feed.