WOOL STORE ALMOST RAZED IN SPECTACULAR FIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26917, 1 November 1948, Page 6

WOOL STORE ALMOST RAZED IN SPECTACULAR FIRE

OUTBREAK AT WELLINGTON Damage Estimated At £160,000 “ * RECORD TRAFFIC JAM

f.A. ' WELLINGTON, Oct. 31. In Wellington’s most spectacular fire since that at the Rongotai Exhibition buildings about two years ago, Levin and Company’s threestorey wool store, fronting the Hutt road at Kaiwarra, was almost totally destroyed late on Saturday night and early this morning. The managing director of the company, Mr John D. G. Duncan, said to-day that there were about 2500 bales of wool in the store, which would be covered by insurances to a total of abQut £IOO,OOO. The building, he added, was insured for between £50,000 and £60,000.

Occurring just as the crowds were leaving the theatres in the city and ,the speedway in the Hutt Valley, the spectacle caused the greatest traffic jam in the city’s history, and the roads north and south of Kaiwarra were blocked for distances up to two miles, with vehicles four and five abreast jumbled together. The first warning of the fire was given when an automatic alarm from the store registered a fire in the office on the ground floor of the store at 10.8 p.m. A fire engine from the Thorndon'station arrived at the store about four minutes later. No sign of the fire could be seen from the road, and when the office was opened with a key held by the fire brigade only the smell of smoke warned that there was a fire somewhere in the building. Wall of Fire Proceeding into Westminster' street, a blind street running on the northern side of the store to the railway, Fourth Officer A. Milne, who was in charge, noticed wisps of smoke, and broke his way througn a small door to be confronted with a wall of fire coming at him down the staircase. He immediately sent by radio an appeal to headquarters for more assistance. This was sent, and a few moments later the chief officer, Superintendent C. A. Woolley, ordered the brigade alarm, which took a total of 12 appliances and two service trucks to the scene with 70 men. Superintendent Woolley himself took charge. Within 20 minutes of the alarm, the roof collapsed, and the north-east corner of the building fell out. By then the flames were reaching up to 100 feet above the building, more especially toward its rear beside the railway line. Soon after 11 p.m. the back wall .fell outward, burying lines of rails in masonry and flaming wool bales. With a maze of hoses which the inspector of fire brigades described as the most he had ever seen used for a fire and with the engines drawing water from the Kaiwarra Stream and from the city mains, many streams of water were poured into the building from all sides, including one jet from inside Cable’s foundry, the next building to the south. This jet was directed through the breaches in the top of the store’s southern wall. By 2.30 a.m. the initial fierceness of the blaze was reduced and it was possible for the firemen in batches to be sent away for a rest and a meal. They were still at

work, however, when daylight came, for sections of the fire, especially a stack of wool in the centre of the building, were still burning steadily. By 10 a.m. there was little left burning though smoke from the smouldering embers and wool shrouded the fantastically twisted network of the building’s inner framework. Almost Total Loss Levin’s building can be considered almost a total loss. William Cable and Company’s workshop suffered little damage. When the southern wall of the wool store fell out, it damaged one pier of Kaiwarra Railway station, carrying away its concrete edging. Two sets of rails between the building and the pier were pushed out of position by the tons of masonry and wool under which they were buried. Red Cross men and women worked right through the night to keep the firemen supplied with tea and biscuits. First aid posts were 'established and minor casualties' were treated. There weie no serious-injuries. One of five stores at Kaiwarra belonging to Levin and Co., the store destroyed was erected about 1913. It was of three storeys in brick, with a steel frame. The fire alarm system was connected with the Thorndon and Central Fire Stations and ran throughout. Apart from a small section, which was occupied by the Shaw Savill and Albion Shipping Company as a wool and shipping office, it was used Bv Levin and Co. The cause of the fire is not ascertained. Superintendent Woolley said to-night; “The fire developed in an inexplicable manner, and I am making further inquiries.” Plain clothes police were noticed to-day removing samples of charred woodwork 'and other debris, which were carried away by motor car. The storeman, Mr T. V. Costello, said he left the dance hall at Kaiwarra. which is on a hill facing the wool store, about 10.15 p.m. He heard the automatic fire alarm ringing, and immediately recognised it as the wool store’s. He could not see any trace of fire. Then he heard the fire engines coming, and went down to' let them into the store. There was still no sign of fire on the road level. A few minutes later long tongues of flame burst through the roof. “I was the last to leave the building,” said Mr Costello. “ I put about 12 railway trucks of wool in the store on ‘Saturday morning. I locked the store about 10.10 a.m.” About 60 men were employed in the store and 12 in the office.

Motor Vehicles Create Gigantic Jig-saw Puzzle

P.A. WELLINGTON, Oct, 31. One of the biggest traffic, jams Wellington has ever seen developed at Kaiwarra shortly after the arrival of the fire brigade at Levin and Company’s fire on Saturday night. Within minutes motor vehicles had banked up as far back as the traffic ramp, on the south side and almost an -equal distance on the other side of the fire. Both the Hutt road and the Ngaio Gorge road were blocked by a tangle of hoses. At about the same time amusements in the city finished, and patrons, seeing a vivid glow in the sky, rushed to Kaiwarra to get a closer look. Buses were packed, and people who walked, hitch-hiked and motored to the scene by the thousand, added to the normal Hutt and northern suburbs’ traffic. Cars and buses were five abreast down the Hutt road as far as the traffic ramp, packed side to side on the ramp itself, and three and four abreast down Aotea Quay for a considerable distance. Over the whole of this section of the road there was only one car’s breadth free for the use of police and other essential cars. On the other two roads traffic was banking up almost as rapidly. Hundreds wpre on their way into the city from the Hutt speedway and hundreds more from the Carterton show. Spectators and normal trafficon the Ngaio Gorge road soon jammed the narrow roadway and there was no hope of traffic escaping in that direction. A detachment of police drawn from all the city stations and from the Hutt soon arrived to try to disentangle the mammoth traffic problem. Twenty-

five constables and six sergeants were joined by eight . City Council traffic officers and four officers of the Transport Department. The problem of clearing the roads of an estimated'3Boo vehicles was made more difficult by the lack of room -in which to handle them. Addressing motorists with loudspeakers, officers directed some of the traffic at the foot of the ramp on .the Hutt road to go via Black Bridge road through the back of Wadestown 'and Ngaio into Khandallah and down Onslow road. In this way it was possible to clear a passage sufficiently to allow vehicles travelling to the Hutt to get up the Ngaio Gorge road and reach Hutt road by way of Onslow road. Vehicles travelling into the city were allowed to pass one at a time along the Hutt road past the fire. Both the Hutt road and Ngaio Gorge road were covered by a web of highpressure hoses, necessitating the use of separate ramps over each one. This fact alone held the traffic passing through to a crawl and though it started to get away about midnight, many drivers had a wait of more than three hours to cover the distance from the ramp to the end of the crush on the other side of the fire. Rail traffic on the main route north, including both the Wairarapa and Paekakariki lines, was severely disrupted. The falling wall and burning debris broke all communication, and the electric traction wires and the threat of a further fall made it too dangerous to send steam trains through for some time. Traffic, however, is now normal.