SPECTACULAR FIRE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 220, 17 August 1939, Page 11

SPECTACULAR FIRE

FACTORY DESTROYED. LOSS AT CHRISTCHURCH. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. . 16. Caused by the igniting of paint ma- , tenuis,. a fire this evening destroyed the electrical appliance factory of H. I C. Urhvin, Ltd., at the corner of Waltham Road and Austin Street, although four leads of water were in use eight minutes after the alarm was given. The lire was then in full control, and in two hours had gutted the big factory. The damage is estimated at_ nearly £50,000, and approximately 270 employees will lie affected by the destruction of the factory, because at least a year will be neded in which to obtain delivery of the heavy plant. Much of the lighter plant is, however, likely to he obtained with little delay. Twenty-one workers had to rush from tlie building when, within 30 seconds of smoke being seen, flames shot from the paintshop to the centre of the factory. For more than an hour the blaze was spectacular, great masses of flame shooting high above the rolling clouds of biack smoke. The reflection was visible from Lyttelton, and the illumination was so bright that residents at the foot of Cashmere Hills were able to read without difficulty.

A single-storey unit, the . factory was opened in April, 1937- The front portion of concrete containing the otfice and showroom escaped destruction, but 'the big factory section of light construction was destroyed. All chances of even a partial save disappeared when a dull explosion Irom gases under tlie roof caused tlie ceiling and waifs at the rear of tho factory to crash in. The factory had been working over•time for many months. Although most of the stock is stored in the city the loss of business will he severe and many thousands of pounds worth of Christmas orders cannot now he fulfilled. .The expansion of the factory to double its present size was actually in progress. . “And the expansion will go on,’ declared Air H. C. Urlwin. managing director, as lie watched the fire. “I never believed that the factory would have burned like that. Except for the material in the paint-spraying room, there was nothing inflammable in the whole building ’lhe factory had no partitions and the only wooden flooring was between some of the machines ” RAPID DEVELOPMENT.

Two young men were working in the spraying room, in which 100 gallons of highly inflammable material were stored, when one noticed smoke coming in through tlie fan vent from outside of the building. Ho went out to investigate, but lie was able to return smoke belched out of the room into the factory, where 17 men were working at the machines and two girls were packing. A general alarm was sounded and an employee telephoned the city fire brigade. In a few seconds the lire was serious. "With a dull .explosion tho flames burst out from the spray room and shot across tlie ceiling to the middle of the factory and spread like wildfire over more than half the building. ’lhe employees had to rush lrom the building. Trapped in one section, a young man broke a window and escaped. None of the employees was harmed, but the girl who was last to leave appealed to be affected by shock, smoke, and fumes. Gases from the spray material had drifted under tlie roof and when they ignited an explosion like a deep thud occurred. The roof crashed, and the walls of the building caved in. At the same time a mass of flames rose more than 50 foot.

The spread' of the flames and their intensity were amazing, and the firemen were faced with a losing light. To make fire-fighting more difficult, dense clouds of vile fumes rolled out of the section of the building where 17 tons of materia] used in the making of hakclite products was stored. The remains of the factory were still smouldering at midnight.