FERRY FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22584, 24 November 1936, Page 11

FERRY FIRE

SYDNEY VESSEL FIVE MEN TRAPPED ENGINE- BOOM OIiREAL DESPERATE RESCUE WORK [FROM Ol'R OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY, Nov. 1!) Fire destroyed 1 lie Manly ferry steamer Bel I libera while it was at the company's repair wharf at Neutral Bay, Sydney Harbour, and of live workmen tvlio were' trapped in her one died from his injuries, two suffered severely from suffocation and burns, and the other two were also injured. The Bellubera's destruction represented a loss of £60.000 to insurance companies. The fire broke out about 3.30 p.m. on Monday, when without warning a blast of flame burst through the decks amidships, driving the captain and two deckhands over the side. Police and firemen fought the fire, and displayed splendid horoiswi when they plunged into the red-hot steel hull to the rescue of the men who were trappeil below. While employees worked desperately to cut through the steel sides of the vessel with oxy-acetylene blowlamps, a small band of firemen, led by an officer in an asbestos suit, fought its way through smoke and flame until the imprisoned men were reached. Tho live workmen spent 50 minutes in tho engine room and were almost suffocated bv the fumes. The fire swept through tiie whole of the upper works of the Bellubcrit, leaving a burnt-out shell. First Diesel-electric-driven ship in Australia, she was little more than a hulk within a couple of hours. The man who died was Robert Findlay, a fitter. The other workmen were Sydney Tight, Andrew I'ae, Sidney Cronshaw, and L. S. Maxwell. A Cigarette Blamed At first it was thought that the fire had originated in the fuel oil in the ferry, but it is now fairly clear that a burning cigarette end thrown into a heap of debris started the blaze. Employees working on the wharf were driven back by a sheet of flame which set the timbers of the wharf on fire under their feet as they retreated. The master, Captain Dahrn, was on the bridge when the fire began. To escai>e he had to lower himself by a rope from the bow. The five members of tho engine-room staff, who had been attending to the Diesel electric engines of the ferry, had no chance to escape. They came up the narrow companionwav leading from the engine-room, but were driven back. In a few minutes the walls and floor became almost unbearably hot. Maxwell struggled through a narrow doorway into the adjoining auxiliary engine-room. He found a porthole above him, and managed to reach it and bring his head out into the open air. His appeals for help could be heard on the wharf. Pathetic Cries for Help When 'the thief fire officer, Mr. Richardson, and the second officer, Mr. Beare, arrived, they found that the ferry was burning so fiercely that no one could board it. The water supply at the wharf was not strong enough to be of any real value, and employees at the wharf, who had made a gallant

attempt to check the fire when it first broke out. had to abandon their hoses. Nearly,so firemen were still at work. The wharf is under a cliff, inaccessible by ordinary means, and the fire engines had to be left at the top of the cliff. More than a quarter of a mile of hose was laid down to reach the wharf from street hydrants above, and an engine acted as a relay pumping station. A Gallant fireman The cries of Maxwell could be heard above the roar of the flames, and two fellow employees took an oxy-wclding plant into a dinghy and rowed to the seaward side of the Bellubera, in the hope that they would be able to cut through the steel plates. It was soon obvious that they would never complete the work in time. Thousands of tons of water, poured into the ferry near the point where it was thought the men were imprisoned, had made a laneway into the flame*. District Fire Officer Griffiths donned an asbestos suit, fitted with respirator, and went into the blaze. The suit had never previously been used in this way. The firemen gathfered round as the white-clad figure climbed over the side of the wharf and pushed forward into the blaze. He had not gone far, when he was recalled. "He was willing enough to go," said the chief fire officer, Mr. Richardson, afterward, "but it would have been sending him to certain death." A few minutes later, when the flames had died down a little, Griffiths and three other firemen made another attempt, and this time were successful. In the interior their lamps showed four men lying unconscious on the floor. "I still do not understand how they lived down there," said one of the rescuers. "The smoke was so thick it was impossible to see. We stumbled around in the darkness, with our lamps hardly penetrating the gloom, and found two of them huddled together, one lying a few yards away, and the other unconscious over a dynamo. Graphic Story Told "Findlay was unconscious and in a bad way. One of the others was moaning 'Air/ give me air.' It was terrible work getting them out. Griffiths stripped off his asbestos suit so that he could move more freely. Two of the men were heavy, and we had to use a rope to get them up the companionway. The only one who did not seem to be seriously affected was Maxwell.'' Cronshaw told a graphic story of his experience. "I only hope that I do not J' v e to go through such an ordeal again," he said: "The five of us were overhauling the Diesel engine and the first we knew of anything amiss was the gradual dimming of the electric lights. Suddenly smoke gushed clown the companionwa.v leading to the engine room. Instinctively I made a rush for the companion, but was driven back by a further rush of sinoke. It was fortunate that I was, as most certainly had the others followed me we would have been trapped on the companion, and nothing could have saved I us.

■"As I crawled hack from the companion way, I began to f<?ol faint, but remembered tliat it is always best to throw yourself on vour face when there is danger of suffocation by smoke. But eould pet no relief. The beat was terrific and the smoke overpowering. 1 could feel myself 'going off.' There vas 1,0 time to think, and I seemed to have no energy. Suddenly everything went black and I can remember nothJ' l tl until 1 woke up on a stretcher." 1 lie .Bcllubera. was the first Aus-tralian-owned ship to be equipped with full Diesel electric drive. Originally a steadier, she was laid tip for six months' while the drive was converted. r lhe job was completed in March, and, when the vessel, was placed on the Manly service soon afterwards, it was shown that the new machinery had increased her speed from 14 to 16 knots. The Bellubera was built in Sydney in 1910. Her gross tonnage was 499.

A cablegram from Sydney on Saturday stated that Sydney Tight had also lued. from burns received and that kidney C'runshaw was still in a serious condition.