SHOWGROUNDS FIRE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 85, 9 March 1945, Page 5

SHOWGROUNDS FIRE

INQUIRY OPENS ARMY WITNESSES HEARD The Coroner’s inquiry into the cause or origin of the fire which occurred in the Showgrounds on the night of December 31 last and destroyed a huge quantity of Army equipment, in addition to buildings of the Manawatu and West Coast A. and P. Association, was opened at the Courthouse

today. Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., is presiding as Coroner, Detective F. X. Quin is conducting the inquiry on behalf of the police, Mr H. R. Cooper is appearing for the Army, and Mr J. PInnes is watching proceedings on behalf of the A. and P. Association, arrangements being made a short time after the inquiry opened to. supply him' with copies of the evidence, enabling him to withdraw from personal appearance. Outlining the evidence to be called, Detective Quin said this was intended to show that on the evening of December 31 a small fire was discovered in a cookhouse next to the Army ordnance store at the Showgrounds. This fire was put out. About an hour or an hour and a half later a major fire broke out in the ordnance store, and this eventually destroyed the store and an administration building next door.

Cpl. W, A. Gould, of the works branch, Central Military District, was the first witness. He said that he had prepared plans of buildings which had existed at the Showgrounds, and produced them to the Court. Lieut. C. R. Gair, who is attached to the security and intelligence branch, produced five photographs of the fire which he had taken on January 2. These showed various parts of the damaged ordnance store, hulk store, a copper site in the men’s cookhouse, an end view of the site of the last copper in a row of eight, the relative position of the copper and the wall of the ordnance store, and a close-up view of the site of the copper. Capt. F. L. G. McKenzie, administrative officer, said that standing orders were issued for the camp regarding security precautions. In conjunction with them were also orders for the men of the guard, who were responsible for patrolling the camp to keep a watch for fire and to prevent unauthorised interference with property. These were effective at the time of the fire and were still in force. During the holiday period a special set of orders was issued owing to a number of men being away on leave. The usual patrols-, it was stressed, had to be maintained and every precaution taken against fire risk; the orders covered the entire camp, hut referred only to the outside of the ordnance stores. The administration inside the ordnance store was the responsibility of the ordnance officer. Full patrols had to be maintained.

In reply to Mr Lawry, witness said the patrol of the cookhouse was the responsibility of the guard.SPECIAL PATROL ORDERS. Capt. AY. S. Keegan, officer commanding the ordnance depot, said orders were issued covering the patrol of the ordnance depot and special ones were issued to cover the holiday period from December 23 to January 4. Two nightwatchmen were maintained in the ordnance store, one being on duty at a time. The fire equipment in the store consisted of buckets, bucket pumps, hoses and extinguishers. In the store were tools, spare parts and expended stores. The other part of this area (No. 3) consisted of camp fittings, crockery, etc. In area No. 4 was clothing on one side totally walled in and enclosed, and the other side was used as a bulk store and an issue and receipt store. The type of goods kept there was practically every type of store required. All this was under his command and the assessing of loss of stores was his responsibility, also the amount of salvage. He had not yet arrived at the final figures, but expected to have them in a week or two. Witness was not in camp oil the night of the fire, being on leave. In reply to Mr Cooper, witness said the orders issued provided for a nightwatchman from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. Week-end duties were done by the staff from 1 p.m. on Saturday to 5 p.m.; from 8.30 p.m. to midnight and from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. on Sun day. A complete inspection was made by the duty men every half hour during each period of duty. A check of all fire-fighting equipment was made at the beginning of each period of duty.. A register was kept recording times of inspection and any unusual occurrences. The register in use at the time was destroyed in the fireIn addition to the routine orders, the non-commissioned officer on duty kept a check on the liightwatehman to see that he was carrying out his duties. The nightwatchman was on duty in the store, which was kept locked. To obtain admission, the officer on duty had to ring a bell; he could not get in if the nightwatchman were not there. METHOD OF STORAGE.

The stores were stacked to order, witness added. Tho inflammable goods generally were stacked in heaps so as to form fire-breaks. In addition, noninflammable goods were used to form fire-breaks. This had been approved by the superintendent of the Fire Brigade, whose advice was always sought. Under the advice of the superintendent, every possible precaution was taken against fire and his recommendations adopted. In reply to Detective Quin, witness said there was a restriction on the amount of goods in store. He considered the amount of storage space available inadequate. No other storage area was available. During his two and a half years at the depot stocks had tended to increase. He would have preferred to have seen the inflammable goods stored in another building, such as paints, a quantity of turpentine and some kerosene. The turpentine and kerosene were kept in steel drums. Attempts had been made to obtain a place in which to store v the volatile goods, but without result, until a certain military formation was changed. This took place towards the end of 1943. None of the buildings which then became available were suitable for storing inflammable goods. The store for expended goods had a concrete floor and iron walls and roof. To Mr Cooper witness said there was no danger of oil soakage setting up spontaneous combustion. This was very closely watched. There was a day by day inspection and smoking was absolutely prohibited. To witness’s knowledge this was observed. To the Coroner, witness said there was no petrol in -the store. All the petrol was held on the other side of the camp and by another unit. It would not have been practicable to have shifted the volatile stores to the section occupied by the other unit re-

-ferred to, a motor transport one. The installation of automatic fire alarms had not been considered. Witness thought that the building the ordnance department occupied was, in any case, a temporary depot, and thus the question of automatic alarms was ruled out. AN EARLIER OUTBREAK.

Sergt. W. G. Luffman, said he was attached to the Central Military District guards pool and was senior n.c.o. of the Showground guard. He was on duty on the evening of December 31 last. The night relief guard commenced at 9 p.m. Three men and an n.c.o. formed the normal strength of the guard. That night there was one man at the gate, and he

was assisted by another. A third man would have been on, but witness sent him home as the man’s wife was seriously ill. •Witness did tha.t man's patrol. At approximately 9.30 p.m. witness proceeded on patrol through the mess-rooms, cookhouses, motor transport area, and back to the guard-house. On this inspection he approached tho. coppers in the men's cookhouse, passing around a row of them. He did not notice anything wrong. Witness .used a torch, not having turned the elec-trio light on. Pte. C. F. Wagstaff. a member of the guard, was at the guardhouse. The other man was then in the officers’ servery; he was not required until after midnight. It was about 10.15 p.m. when witness reached the guardhouse.

At about 10.30 p.m., witness proceeded, he went on another tour of inspection, proceeding by the same •• Toute. As he approached the sergeants’ cookhouse he detected a faint smell of burning wood. He inspected that cookhouse and then went to the men’s cookhouse, where, lie saw a fi /.t glow on the wail just above a copper. There was no electric light on. Witness said he found the bottom of the copper was red-hot and a piece of wood on the wall had been ignited. A copper produced in Court was of the same kind, l'he gas under the copper was alight. The wood which was glowing was on a corrugated iron wall and was used to hold a canopy over the coppers. The stud 3 of the wall were on the other side —on the ordnance side of the wall. Just the end of the timber was glowing. The copper had a metal flue. The wood was about two feet above the flue and behind it, the wall being about a foot away from the flue. Witness turned the gas off and went to the main gate, instructing Pte. Wagstaff to sccompany him to the men’s cookhouse. They closed the gate and took a stirrup-pump to the men’s kitchen. They directed a stream of water on the burning timber and were satisfied that they put it out. Pte. Wagstaff filled the copper with cold water. Witness felt the iron around the site of the fire and it was quite cold. The stirrup-pump was refilled and left near the copper as a natural precaution against a repetition of the fire. Witness then returned with Pte. Wagstaff to the guardhouse. Witness knew the 'wall was common also to the ordnance depot. He tried to make contact with the ordnance night-watchman but failed, not gettinga reply on the telephone. The fire was found about 10.30 p.m. and witness returned to the guardhouse about 10.50 p.m. Witness did not notify an- officer in camp (Lieut. Smith, who Vas railway transport officer), or the Fire Brigade, as he was fully satisfied the fire was out. Witness then went on another tour of inspection and got back to the main gate about 11.35 p.m. Pte. Wagstaff and Pte. Collins, the latter being -the ordnance night-watchman, were there. Pte. Collins occasionally visited the main guardroom for a minute or two. Witness instructed Pte. Collins to make a tour of the ordnance area and told him to examine the wall opposite the point where the fire had occurred. Witness assumed Pte. Collins knew what part of the wall this would be, for there was some discussion on the matter. Pte. Collins left immediately to make the inspection and witness went back to the kitchen. Conditions there were normal, and there was no sign of a fire. Satisfied that- all was well, witness went round the oval and back to the guardhouse. reaching there about 11.50 p.m. or 11.55 p.m. Pte. Collins reached there at the same time and reported that everything was correct on his side of t the wall. SECOND DISCOVERY.]

Neither witness, Pte. V agstaff nor Pte. Collins bad had any liquor. Witness did not allow guards to drink on duty. All three were capable of doing their duty efficiently. They waited at the guardhouse for about ten minutes. waiting for the usual “noise and hullabaloo” of Hogmanay, at midnight. Witness thought he would contribute to the this noise by blowing a “hooter” at the gate, which he did. Apparently this was the only “hooter” or siren which went off. Witness did not hear anv others. It was a Sunday night.. Witness added that he went- outside the guard hut and saw a glow in the sky near tho ordnance depot. He was not sure if it was from the ordnance depot, but lie rushed into the guardhouse and telephoned the Fire Brigade. He received no replv. There were two alarms in the camp connected with the Fire Station, these being tho street alarm type. They were both out of order. Pte. Collins and Pte. Wagslaff vanished from the guardroom when witnessed shouted “Fire!” Thinking he might have dialled the wrong number, witness dialled again and when lie was doing so he heard the siren of the fire engine coming. One engine came at'firet. going to the fire, which was just beyond the cookhouse. Witness followed. The building beyond tho cookhouse (an ordnance store) was well alight. Flame was breaking through the roof. This was back from the cookhouse. Witness had no idea of the cgusc of the fire, and did not connect it with the previous outbreak. Witness had not .seen or heard of any unauthorised persons in the camp. There were no such roports from the guards in the previous week. There was.no tampering with buildings, gates or fences, to witness’s knowledge. The Court adjourned at this stage tm 2.15 p.m.