Spectacular Fire Near Christchurch

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 61, 14 March 1938, Page 6

Spectacular Fire Near Christchurch

Thousands of Pounds Of Damage Caused SOAP WORKS GUTTED Per Preen Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. Thousands of pounds ’ worth of damage was done at the works of tbe Zealandia Soap, Candle and Trading Company, Limited, at Belfast on Saturday afternoon. The fire started in the soap department, a brick building about 50 yards square, and in a few minutes the block was a furnace. The company has an agreement with the Christchurch Fire Board, and when the alarm was given a pumping engine from the Central Fire Station was raced to Belfast. Assisted by a north-east wind, the fire burned merrily, but it had a flying start through breaking out in the soap department near five huge vats of soap. When these caught alight the spectators at 100 yards distance were forced back by the heat. The blaze broke out in a two-storey portion of the brick building, its origin is unknown. As it was Saturday morning, there were no employees working in that particular department, although another portion of the works was in use. The manager (Mr. J. Rudkin) could not estimate tho damage beyond saying that it would total many thousands of pounds. The whole of the soap department has been gutted. Although the damage was not as great as that caused by a previous fire on the same site in 1933, there was no chance of the firemen doing anything with the burning building, and they concentrated their efforts on saving tho adjoining tallow and candle departments and the sanl soap department. Water to fight the fire was brought through a quarter-mile lead of hose from a big reservoir at Borthwick’x freezing works, supplemented by a small supply in tanks at the soap works. In the first half-hour after the fire started the sight was a most spectacular one, and a stream of cars and cycles up the Main North road carried spectators to the scene. When the fire was at its peak the wholo building was a mass of flames 100 feet high-capped by a huge pillar of smoke that was easily visible from Cathedral Square.