FIRE IN MOTOR WORKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20039, 4 March 1927, Page 10

FIRE IN MOTOR WORKS

A DISASTROUS OUTBREAK. MANY EXCITING INCIDENTS. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, March 3. (Received March 3, at 5.5 p.m.) Eire last night destroyed Messrs Holden’s motor body building works in William street. The damage is estimated at £IOO,OOO, The flames spread to the Morris Motor Service Station and Oswald’s garage, both of which adjoin Holden’s. Morris’s was gutted and Oswald’s was severely damaged. There were many full petrol tanks in Holden’s, and the explosion of one of these injured a fireman and throw into the air a heavy metal cylinder, which crashed through the roof of a nearby house. ’ A crowd of 40,000, which watched the outbreak, almost became 1 panic-stricken when the overhead electric tram wires in Williams street fused. The crowd rushed in all directions to escape the wires, which they thought would fall. Many women fainted, hut no one was injured. When it was seen that the wires had not fallen the crowd returned. More than 200 motor cars were destroyed in Holden’s, and 40 in Morris's. As a result of the outbreak hundreds of men will he thrown out of employment.