LINER FIRE MYSTERY

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 24 May 1932, Page 5

LINER FIRE MYSTERY

ALARMS FROM BULLION ROOM. FURTHER PMILLIPAR REPORT. Unit-o' 1 Press /-vs&ciation—By Electric TelegrapCopyright.' . PARIS, May 23. Captain Vicq’s supplementary report on the burning of the liner Philippar discloses that the electric alarm communicating with the bullion room mysteriously sounded, the first time eight days before the disaster and the second time half an hour before the fire. The officers immediately inspected the bullion room on both occasions and found no signs of any tampering. Captain Vicq adds that some of the fii e-fighting apparatus was curiously found empty when the fire started. Captain Vicq inspected all the first and second-class cabins accessible before he left the ship and found nobody. He spent the whole morning superintending -the rescue of the survivors. A British survivor emphasises the deplorablv inadequate warning of fire, of which his . first intimation was smoke and flames bursting into his cabin. He and his wife found places in a boat, the seams of -which leaked' until the soaking closed them, compelling the occupants to bail with their hats. The ordeal was prolonged by the unsuitability of the food aboard' the Mahsud and by the intense heat, which brought the pitch bubbling from the seams on the steamer’s deck.