RADIO INTERRUPTED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 42, 17 January 1935, Page 9

RADIO INTERRUPTED

FIRE THREATENS 2YA. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jan. 16. A gorse and glass fire which assumed serious proportions broke out on the city side of Mount Victoria this afternoon and under the influence of a strong northerly breeze swept to the summit, threatening the 2YA transmitting station. So dense was the suffocating smoke that the control room of the station was lost to sight from the city, only the tops of the twin masts remaining in view. The afternoon’s broadcast was interrupted on account of the uncomfortable conditions created inside. The building escaped damage, but the fire swept on through the thick scrub down the Hataitai side. It was out of hand for two hours, finally; being checked by the wide road circling the lower slopes of the hill. At one stage a house on the shoulder oi the lull was threatened, but the fire was checked at the fence by two leads of hose, from which water, pumped by engines, was sprayed on the advancing riames. It is estimated that 50 acres were swept before the outbreak was extinguished.