BLAZE AT INVERCARGILL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1038, 10 June 1924, Page 5

BLAZE AT INVERCARGILL.

OIL STORE DESTROYED. INJURY TO AN EMPLOYEE. (Per Press Association.) INYERCARGILL, June 9. lnvercargill to-day witnessed an aweinspiring spectacle, when the British Imperial Oil Company's (New Zealand) big oil bond store went up in smoke. Just as the suit set. a huge pall of black smoke commenced t<j stream across the sky and huge tongues of flame rose hundreds of feet in the air. Like a great black curtain, the huge volume of smoke poured across the heavens, with the westerly breeze, and from five o'clock to close on midnight it continued without a break, only in the late hours of the night the eruption showing any noticeable tendency to decrease. There were at least 20.000 cases of oil stored in the building, of which 16,500 were unloaded from the Kan warra to-day. When the last cases were being stored away, the fire was discovered in the front of the building and it spread with such appalling rftr pidity that nothing could be done tq save it. •

An employee named Smith discovered the place to' be on fire and pluckily tried to put it out, but so l-apid was the spread of the flames that he was burnt about the arms and chest and taken to hospital for treatment, where inquiry late last night elicited, the information that he was progressing favourably. In adc.'.'tion to the 30,000 cases of oil, a quantity of lubricating oil Was also stored iii the building, but the exact quantity is hot known at present. All the office papers Were saved, but the store was irretrievably ' destroyed, Only the walls standing* and at a late hour last night it was still ft question whether the front wall would Hold and prevent the fire spreading, but it was then considered that things had taken a.more hopeful turn. The greatest*danger facing the fife brigade was the possibility of the fire spreading to two big bond stores across the road, ''namely,, those of th* Vacuum i Oil Company and Messrs At and S. Patefsoh, and elaboratepreeair* tions were taken to prevent thishapi pening. The brigade eotild ohly bring one liose ittto operation, the fire being soitie little distance from thfe town water mains, and a solitary stream of water from thb gasworks was kept in use without a stop for six hours in hosing the other two stores mentioned* from which huge clouds of steam arose, The brigade is considered to have hand, led the fire well so far, and if the wall holds out, no further danger is anticipated. The building and contents are cov? ered by an open policy of insurance, but the amount of the damage covered is not yet known; The cause of the outbreak has not jpet definitely been determined,