WAREHOUSE FIRE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 26 November 1941, Page 9

WAREHOUSE FIRE

INQUIRY INTO CAUSE < SWITCHBOARD BLAZE EMPLOYEES' EVIDENCE (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND,. this day. When the inquiry, into the cause of the fire in the warehouse of John Burns and Company, Limited, on August 19, was resumed to-day, Frederick Charles Pearson, a ledgerkeeper, said he heard ,a clerk.in. the office on the first floor shout: “.Where’s the electrician? The whole of the switchboard is on fire.” He said he did not hear people warning one another not to use, : water on the switchboard. Rowena Doris -Wood, a Burroughs machine operator, gave evidence that the light on her machine went out immediately after a. blue flash came out from the switchboard. She was certain that when the, electrician was working on a plug the power was not switched off. Replying to Mr. Goldstine, representing the Queensland Insurance Company, the witness said she thought the blue flash came from the point of the screwdriver which the electrician was using. Thomas Blackwood Alexander, a liftman, said that on the down trip to the ground floor he heard a report like a shotgun. The lift seemed to hesitate for a second and. then proceeded to the .ground floor. He saw flames at the hack of the switchboard. '* Frank Lees, li dispatch clerk, said that while he was waiting for the lift, he saw the, reflection of, a flash in the switchboard,and-heard a report practically simultaneously. He would not say the report was as loud as the shot from ,a. gun. The manager of the firm said that as soon as the fire was reported, he 'advised the brigade, receiving _a reply that one engine was on, the, way. He later asked the brigade to* send’everything they had. An office boy said that when the brigade arrived they jumped off the engine and got out their hose very quickly. . ; ■