MATCH FACTORY BLAZE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23704, 11 January 1939, Page 10

MATCH FACTORY BLAZE

EXPLOSION IN POTASH FIREMEN’S LIVES IMPERILLED (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. Jan. 6. Six firemen had remarkable escapes from death, when, during a fire in a Sydney match factory a terrific explosion hurled twisted iron and blazing timber high into the air. With only seconds to spare, a warning by a district fire officer drove them through dense smoke and blazing debris to the safety of a street. Windows were shattered in houses and factories opposite. Fragments of iron and timber showered the roadway. Traffic was held up in two streets for more than an hour. Damage estimated at thousands of pounds was done to the factory of Matches (Aust.), Ltd., and the printing works of George B. Philip and Sons, publishers. Fed by huge stacks of safety matches in cartons and boxes, the fire raged for more than an hour, while over 60 firemen from nine stations, fought desperately to subdue the flames and save the adjoining buildings. The explosion, which was attributed to the contact of the flames with packages of potash, occurred when it was believed that the fire was under control. It save renewed energy to the blaze. Within a few minutes a series of sharp explosions added to the confusion.

How or where the fire started is unknown, but the first knowledge that anything was amiss came with a sudden burst of flame that shot more than 50 feet into the air. Two adjoining shops were threatened. A visitor from Western Australia, in Sydney for a “ quiet holiday,” was sleeping in an upstairs room above one shop. He was awakened by a roaring noise, and lay for a few moments under the impression that the gas-heater was in operation. “ Then casually I looked out of the window, and to my horror saw a great wall of flame towering outside,” he said. “ I was out of bed like a shot.” Another nearby sleeper was awakened by the frantic noise of the family cat and kittens. Meanwhile the fire had gathered impetus from the supplies of matches. Thousands of these were washed by the water into the gutters and across the footpath. Drains were clogged by the soaked wooden pulp and the gathering pools on the roadway were discoloured by the phosphorous and other chemicals used in the manufacture of matches.