FIRE ON STEAMER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 9

FIRE ON STEAMER

AMMONIA FUMES RELEASED. .VOLUNTEER FIREMEN OVERCOME. PATHETIC SCENES WITNESSED. (Pr«s« Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) MELBOURNE, December 5. (Received Dec. 5, at 5.5 p.m.) The steamer Idomeneus, while cn route from Sydney to London, caught fire, but the outbreak was extinguished before she reached Melbourne. While the vessel was being unloaded at Melbourne the fire broke out afresh in the refrigerators, which were packed with frozen mutton. Before the fire brigades ..rrived volunteers attempted to quell the outbreak. Nine stevedores, who were working on the ship, and six firemen were overcome by ammonia fumes and taken to hospital. There were pathetic scenes when the victims were brought on deck: They were seized by convulsions and rolled about in intense agony. The foremap, Jorgensen, went below three times in stifling fumes, and each time brought up an unconscious man. He returned a fourth time, and was seized by convulsions as a result of the fumes, and fell from the ladder into the hold, where he lay for half an hour before he was rescued by firemen in smoke helmets. The ship’s hatches were sealed, and the steam was turned on from the boilers in the hope of quelling the outbreak, the cause of which is unknown. Most of the cargo was removed from the vessel, the watersiders having agreed to work overtime in order to get the mutton stored in the refrigerating chambers on the wharf.