£14,000 FIRE LOSS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23181, 29 October 1938, Page 12

£14,000 FIRE LOSS

FACTORY DESTROYED FIERCE DUNEDIN BLAZE GLARE OVER WIDE AREA BRIGADE'S HOPELESS TASK [BY TELEGRAPH OWN CORRESPONDENT] DUNEDIN, Friday Bursting through the roof with such sudden furj' that 011 the arrival of the brigade the flames were reaching 60ft. high, a fire early this morning completely gutted the two-storey factory building of Thompson's Crystal Products, Limited, opposite the Rattray Street wharf. Paw materials, including 15 tons of .sugar, a quantity of tins of wax and a number of bundles of packing straw, etc., acted as fuel to the blaze, which was the fiercest seen here for years.

The total damage is estimated at about £14,000. Only the four brick walls and the heap of black debris and twisted frameworks of machinery they enclosed remained later this morning. From the moment of the arrival of a fleet of fire engines there was no hope of saving the building, and the brigade had to work strenuously to save buildings on either side. Enveloped in names

When the night watchman of the Ota go Harbour Board gave the first alarm at 2.30 a.m., the building was enveloped in flames. It is significant of the rapidity with which they spread that immediately after the central fire station received 20 telephone calls and alarms from six street fire-boxes. The caretaker of the Sailors' llest heard the glass of one of the boxes outside this building being broken, and he was one of the first to arrive on the scene. By then a strong south-east wind was fanning the flames, and carrying a shower of sparks past adjoining buildings for over 300 yairds. When the machines were racing along Lower High Street, a wide area was as bright as day, although only three minutes before there was no clue that the building was a seething furnace inside. Other Buildings in Danger There were three machines from the central station, and as the crew went smartly into action flames were shooting through the front and rear windows, and half the corrugated iron roof had fallen in. Even then there was a real danger of the new waterside workers' building, owned by the Harbour Board, and also the building ol Wilson, Canham and Company, Limited, wool and skin exporters, being doomed.

As the fire progressed all the skylights and windows of Wilson, Canham and Company's premises, numbering about 100, were broken by the intense heat. Damage amounting to several hundreds of pounds was clone to this building, but owing to the direction of the wind, the waterside workers' building escaped much more lightly.

Good Supply of Water By 3.15, thr«»e-quarters of an hour after it was discovered, the fire was under control. There were five engines engaged. Fortunately, there was a full pressure of water. At first two lines of hose were coupled up to 4in. mains, and there was an excellent volume of water immediately. Then powerful pumps commenced to direct three streams of water from the harbour on to the flames, which were now sweeping furiously through the building. The whole sky was lit up and the flames at one stage could be seen from every part of the city and suburbs.

How the fire started is not definitely known, but it is suspected, because one of the doors leading into Thompson's was eaten through, that it had its origin near a boiler along the east wall of the building. The gutted building and its contents are jointly insured for £II,OOO with the F.A.M.E. Company and Lloyds.