FIRE DESTROYS STABLES

Southland Times, Issue 23379, 10 December 1937, Page 4

FIRE DESTROYS STABLES

Outbreak In Queen’s Park HORSES RESCUED BY STAFF The City Corporation stable o in Queen’s Park were totally destroyed by fire yesterday morning. The outbreak occurred suddenly about 7.10 when a motor-tractor, which was left in the shed, was started up by a member of the reserves staff, and the flames quickly spread over the whole building, in which there were also four horses and the new motor-mower which had been used for the first time only the previous day. The driver of the tractor, Mr S. Bissett, was the only man on the scene at the time, and his first act was to rescue the horses, which were milling about in terror. He was then joined by another member of the staff and, with a wet sack over his head, broke into the mower shed, which was under the same roof and which was also ablaze, and pushed the mower, a machine weighing a ton and a-half, out of reach of the flames.

The tractor is probably a total loss, but the mower was only scorched and will require a fresh coat of paint and will have to be rewired also. Harness and horsecovers were also destroyed, but all the other implements were stored in a shed a few yards away from the stables and were untouched by the flames.

The fire brigade was called shortly after 7.30 and a long lead of hose was run from Elies road, but little could be done to save the building, in which bales of hay and chaff were blazing fiercely. The stables, which were a rough wooden building erected about 10 years ago, were insured in the City Corporation’s own fund, and the tractor was also insured.

It is thought that the tractor backfired when it was started and that the petrol fumes with which the air may have been charged in the enclosed space, ignited. The City Council will conduct an inquiry into the cause of the outbreak.

Mr Bissett received slight burns but was able to go home after medical attention, and one of the horses was singed slightly. The Mayor (Mr John Miller) and members of the reserves committee visited the scene of the fire during the morning. The blaze was seen from the road by passers-by who thought, however, that it was a rubbish fire started by corporation employees.