£100,000 FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22859, 14 October 1937, Page 10

£IOO,OOO FIRE

SYDNEY FACTORY SEVEN MEN INJURED SCALDING BITUMEN SEVERAL NARROW ESCAPES £fbom our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Oct. 9 Damage which it is estimated will probably excseod £IOO,OOO, was done by a fire which destroyed the factory of Pabco Products Proprietary, Limited, in Wentworth Road, Glebe, and spread to adjoining buildings. The blaze was the fiercest since the wool store of Goldsbrough Mort and Company, Limited, was burned last year. The ruins are still burning, and it is expected that they will smoulder for geveral days. The foreman of the works was burned about the face and legs, and six firemen were scalded with boiling bitumen, and had to be taken to hospital. Explosion Without Warning Shortly before noon, Mr. H. R. Potts, works foreman, was at the eastern end of the works with about 10 other employees. They were mixing benzol and asphalt. "Without warning," said Mr. Potts, "there was an explosion. Combustion had caused the benzol to ignite. Flames jumped to the ceiling, and for a few seconds I was enveloped. My hair and eyebrows were singed, and my overalls caught alight. I'beat out the flames from my hair with my hands, and the others put qut my blazing overalls with a chemical extinguisher." Ten employees, all men, were working on the top floor, which was stocked with tons of manufactured roofing paints, and benzol products. They heard the first explosion from the fire, and were able to race down the stairs before the flames reached them. One of the employees, Mr. J. Dangen, was in the dressing-room, and when he looked through the window and saw clouds of black smoke rolling up, he jumped out of the window, a distance of about 14 feet. He rushed into the office, shouting, "The factory is on fire; get outside." Records Thrown Into Street

Tlie office staff included Miss Pike, / the secretary of the company, and three girl clerks. They threw some of the office records into the street, and escaped into Went worth Park Road. A few minutes later the two floors were a roaring mass of flame. Huge clouds of black smoke billowed over Blackwattle Bay, and when 90 firemen arrived from 15 city and suburban stations the flames were roaring 200 feet intd the air over the whole ' of the factory building. The heat was .so intense that the firemen could not get near the factory. . By this time flames were being carried by the'' stiff breeze over the railway line toward Blackwattle Bay. ' and the factory of C. E. Crane and

Sons, paint manufacturers, which was separated front' the fire by the railway embankment. In the factory was a large quantity of spirits. Next door was A. Squire's garage, facing Bridge Road, where much petrol was stored. Both places were enveloped in a pall of smoke and sparks, and, fearing that the spirits would explode, the employees hurriedly locked up both premises and fled across Wentworth Park. The police also feared that there would be an explosion at any time, and Superintendent O'Brien, with Inspector Saunders, ordered 10 sergeants and 50 constables to patrol the area And divert all traffic from Bridge Road to Wattle Street. 1

Bursting oi Hoses Firemen were able to approach nearer the heart of the fire with the aid of the pressure from the Aarons Cox pumping engine, the most powerful of its kind in Australia, hut the pressure on the hoses from this as it sucked 1000 gallons of water a minute out of Blackwattle Bay was so great that in places 15 firemen had to lie on the main hose to keep it on the road. Frequently hoses hurst, and firemen were knocked over hy the force of water that shot in the air. - After the western wall collapsed over the railway embankment, and had showered the line with red-hot bricks and mortar, the firemen, who were attacking the flames from every side, got into the opening between the main doors and the crumpled walls. They were not there more than a few minutes before several barrels of bitumen exploded. Firemen's Faces Burned , /Above the flames the air was black with boiling bitumen, and six firemen vrexG splashed, over the face and arms so badly that they staggered back, some almost blinded and in excruciating agony. The burning bitumen had seared into their flesh, and as it solidified almost immediately it stuck to them in a thick coating. The Central District Ambulance was summoned, and, as the injured firemen lay on the footpaths, their burns were dressed. Afterwards, they were taken in two waggons to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. At the back of the Pabco works, in Bellevue Street, small houses of two floors were in grave danger. The roofs on some of these houses caught alight, and the intense heat smashed the windows.