BATTLE WITH FIRE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 3 September 1925, Page 9

BATTLE WITH FIRE.

OUTBREAK ON THE KENT,

NOW UNDER CONTROL

AFTER STRENUOUS CONTEST.

(BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, Sent. 3. At 4.45 o’clock this 1 morning the fourth officer of the Kent saw smoke coming from a ventilator and he gave the alarm. He called the captain and chief officer, and) they got the ship’s hose working, while the engineers got the pumps going and turned steam and. water into i\lo. 2 hold. They signalled to the shore, and the fire brigade was called l at 6.15. It was aboard at 6.30 and immediately got to work below. Fireman AlcKay was almost suffocated when he was taking the hose down the hold, through the air iine attached to his gas mask getting, entangled. He was released by the chief officer, Air. Barclay, and soon recovered. The brigade drilled two big boles On the port sid© of the vessel Where the lire was located, and another. 14 inches in. diameter in the deck.. The port side of the ship was commencing to bulge and the deck w'as becoming extremely hot. At 10 o’clock the fire w r as working aft and appeared to have a very strong hold. At this time the firemen wer© operating in the ship’s storeroom underneath the main deckhouse, right amidships. At 10.10 it was evident that the lir e was more intense, and 1 dense black smoke and the smell indicated that the flaiqes bad reached oils and paints. At 10.15 flames made their appearance over No. 2 hold, leaping seven or eight feet, while the ship was steadily listing to starboard. At 10.20' the flames burst out in greater fury, and from the navigating bridge No. 2 hold l appeared to be a raging inferno. At 10.23 the. navigating instruments, the ship’. l : papers, and some property of value belonging to the officers were removed from the main deck house. Alost strenuous efforts were made to keep th e five from getting right aft, where the oil fuel was stored, the' Kent being an oil burning vessel. At 11.30, after consultation between the captain of ; the Kent, Captain Plunket, Lloyds’ surveyor, and Captain Sergeant, the harbourmaster, it was decided to bring the Kent alongside, the wharf, to get th© advantage of the greater pressure from the city water supply. The origin of the fire is a mystery, for officers have been in the hold every day since the vessel left the vTiarf. Only th© officers' and the engineers were aboard the whole time. The Kent was berthed at the Queen’s wharf. The fire then evidently main-' tainecl a powerful hold, for the water was not making any marked impression. The Kent discharged 5000 of her 10,000 tons of cai'go at Auckland, and the balance aboard was for Wellington, Lvtteiton, and Dunedin. It in eludes 1500 tons in No. 2 hold. It is still hoped the fire mav be confined to No. 2 bold.

At one o’clock the City Council’s Dennis pump got to work oil the Kent. The fir© is now under control. Noth, ing is known of the insurances.

The officers say the berthing of the ship undoubtedly saved her from total destruction.