MOTOR-STEAMER ON FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19503, 6 December 1926, Page 11

MOTOR-STEAMER ON FIRE.

DEADLY AMMONIA FUMES. GALLANTRY OF A FOREMAN. UNCONSCIOUS MEN RESCUED. EFFORT TO SAVE MEAT CARGO. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received 7.35 p.m.) A. and N.Z. MELBOURNE. Dec, 5. A fire broke out aboard the steamer Idomeneus while she was en route from Sydney to London. The flames were extinguished before she reached Melbourne, but while the vessel wes being unloaded at this port the fire broke out afresh in the refrigerators, which were packed with frozen mutton. Before the fire brigades arrived volunteers attempted to quell the outbreak. Nine stevedores who were working on the ship and six of the ship's firemen were overcome by ammonia fumes and had to be taken to hospital. There were pathetic scenes when the victims were brought on deck. They were seized with convulsions and rolled about in intense agony. A foreman named Jorgensen went below three times in the stifling fumes. Each time he brought up an unconscious man. When he "returned for the fourth time he was seized with convulsions as a result of the deadly fumes, and fell from a ladder into the hold. There he lay for half an hour before he was rescued by firemen who wore smoke-helmets. The ship's hatches were sealed and steam was turned on.from the ship's boilers in the hope of quelling the outbreak, the cause of which is not known. Most of the cargo was removed from the vessel, the waterside workers having agreed to work overtime in order to remove the mutton, which was stored in the refrigerating chambers, on to the wharf. The steamer Idomeneus is a new steel twin-screw motor-ship of 7857 tons gross. She was built in 1926 by Messrs. Workman, Clark and Company, Ltd.. of Belfast, for her owners, Messrs. Alfred Holt and Company, of Liverpool. She had loaded at Brisbane and Sydney,, for Dunkirk, Antwerp, Hull and London, and was proceeding to Melbourne for further cargo.