FALSE FIRE ALARM

Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1927, Page 1

FALSE FIRE ALARM

TR ACT UIX ENG IXK AY 111 STLE AT FA I TT.

BI.KMIIIAI, Nov. 20. Proceeding towards Blenheim hy the Middle ißeuwick Road al about sixo’clock hist, evening, the driver of Air Gifford’s steam traction engine seized hold of the lanyard attached to the engine whistle with the idea of sounding a warning as (he ungainly vehicle neared .Murphy’s Cross Road. lie did not anticipate Ihat the mere pulling of the string would set all Blenheim by the ears, hut it did. Til response to his gentle tug. the whistle blew dutifully, hut once ii raised its raucous voice nothing could induce it to stop. For ten solid minutes the siren screeched to high heaven, and the effect. in Blenheim was magical,. if laughable. Tin* attendant at the fire stnl»>n. mistaking the sound lor mi alarm of fire from the gasworks whistle, rang the tirehell, and players on tennis courts and howling greens downed racquets and howls and poured into the streets, while holmetcd firemen on bicycles pedalled frantically towards the lire station. Business was abandoned. All this time the traction engine kept up its shrieking wail, and soon the whole of Blenheim’s live thousand were in Ihe streets, peering anxiously around to see what disaster threatened. A special squad of police* turned out, and the River Board inspector, fearing that a cloudburst, in the hills had .brought the rivers down in unexampled fury, telephoned desperately up river seeking information. The Power Board’s line gang assembled, in ease the alarm concerned a break in the main 33,000-volt transmission line, and the .Mounted Rifles and Territorials would possibly have been mobilised within a lew minutes, hut for the fact that at this stage, with the aid of a wet sack, the traction engine crew succeeded in getting to grips with the recalcitrant whistle. After that there was a dead silence and everybody went home.