DESTRUCTIVE FREE CASTLE STREET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2312, 23 June 1898, Page 22

DESTRUCTIVE FRE E CASTLE STREET.

A fire which caused a large amount of damage occurred on Sunday morning in the soap and candle - factory of Messrs M'Leod Bros.. ( Limited). The company's premises extend, through from Cumberland street to Castle street, theoffices standing at one end of the Cumber! and street frontage with the candle works behind them, and the candle store at the ether end with an-oil ihed, .soap' store, and tha soap works behind ife, the soapworks being separated from Caatla street only by a stable and small dwelling hou«e with a narrow yard between tbeca. The various rotnparbmentsof ihe establishment are -all isolated as well as possible by high brick parapets and iron doors, »s well as by a large yard that separates the soapworks and the baildiags on that tide of the premises from the candle works and office, and by reason of this isolation of different compartments tbo buildings were, fox insurance pnrposes, divided into four block**. It was inthe soapworka branch — No. 4 block, as it-was called — that the fire occurred. The alarm was given to the Fire Brigade at 7.40 a.ra. from the indicator at the Victoria Hotel, in Cumberland Btreet, «n indicator ia the company's premises being not accessible to a milkman, who was the first person to discover that the place was on fire. A carter and two men who lived on the premises got three jets of water on the burning building as quickly ss possible, and the fire brigade, under Captain Mitchell, were on the spot* with great promptitude, * but ib was ab once realised by them thab the fire had acquired such a commanding hold of the building in which ib fcad started thab any idea of saving it was oat of the question. They, however, gob expeditiously to work with three hydrants and about 2000 ft of hose, with the view of confining the fire to the ons buildiog. This was a three-storey building, the exterior of which was nearly all of brick, ona w&il and the roof being, however, constiueted of galvanised iron, and its contents, - consisting of sosp in the process of manufacture and material for the manufacture ,- of soap, were of a highly inflarmnabia nature. The building burnt sapid ly and, with the exception thab tho boiler In one comer oLifc w*s nofc damaged, was completely d'S-royed. "The precautions taken by the ocmjiiffy, againHb the ftpre&d of fire sbood the test - f-il, aud a high parapet between tha eoapworii s.ud the soap store, coupled with the facb that "he weather was calm ab the time and that the brigade worked extremely well, had the effec <>! preventing an extension of tho flames to tbo latter branch of the factory. There stf.oa Urge quantity oLbaga of resin in the yard, and there the brigade isolated, while a number of casks of tallow were rolled by them out into the middle of the road. The tiliovr thab was stocked in the destroyed building was oil contained in tanks and digesters, noae of ib being in bags. .Though there is some reason for supposing that ''the fire originated in the middle of the destroyed buHdiDg, there are no means ,of ascertaining the actual c*use. The nighb watchman lefb ab 6 o'clock, and the bell-tale Indicator ehowed thab he passed through tlie eoapworks at 5.4-5 a.m., and ab that time no eign of fire was apparent to him. Moreover, there bad been no fire in the premises eince noon on Saturday; There is evidence, however,' that jsmoke was seen issuing from 6 build•liig'st the - Caitle street frontage, 'which would 'fc&the soapworks building, at half- past 6 yesterday morning, bub no significance-was attached, •to this, it being assumed thafc, as is a frequent 'occurrence in ' factories, some' employee had been in the premises banking ap the fires, aad /■when the brigade, arrived -aboub an hour and a quarter afterwards the fl«mes were ragiDg all through tha building. The value ot the -premises and stock destroyed is esfci.mated ab between £4000 *nd £5000, and tho insurances upon Uia p*iticular building Rnd its contents amount to £3550, shared by the following offices :— Sun £250, New Zealaud £550, Standard (£250,( £250, National £250, Commercial Onion £750, South British £750. Guardiau £500, United £250. The fire will cause httlo interruption in the company's soapmaking operations, which will 'ba carried on in the old Albion factory, pending bhe erection of new works, while Ibo candlemaking industry will be continued vrithout auy interruption whatever.