DARING INCENDIARISM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 727, 29 July 1929, Page 1

DARING INCENDIARISM

v Attempt to Fire Petrol Station

RUBBER hose used as fuse (Special to THE SUX) CHRISTCHURCH, Today. OXLY the chance discovery of a flame burning along the rubber tube which led to the big petrol-tank at the Oasis Petrol Station last evening saved an explosjon that would certainly have done a great deal of damage. TWO ARMED MEN

The greatly daring incendiarist, ■who has caused much damage in Christchurch. recently visited the station in Liverpool Street, just off Cashel Street. He crawled under the gate and into a shed and slashed off tlie rubber-tube from which the freeair is given. This was used as a fuse to the petrol-tank. To collect a bicycle which he had left at the petrol-station lan Patrick, the 20-year-old sou of the manager of the station, Mr. W. R. Patrick, called there at 0 o’clock and noticed a flame near the tanks. He ran over and found the rubber-tube leading through the opening to the tank nearest the road flaming fiercely, and only ISin. from the hole. About a similar distance of pipe had been burned. The tube led right to the bottom of the tank, which had in it only about 100 gallons of petrol, ■ and therefore was more dangerous than if it had contained the full 700 gallons. Had Patrick’s visit been a little delayed there would have been a terrific explosion. The incendiarist, to get to the strong rubber and canvas hose, had had to crawl under the gate into the shed where the air tank is kept, and where 30ft of tubing was coiled up. Then when the cut tube was released the air, which must have made a considerable noise when rushing out, would take some time to escape, but his luck which has enabled him to gel away successfully after all his tires so far still held, and though the station is open on to Liverpool Street he was not noticed.

The tube was pushed right down into the tank and about a yard left protruding. In the shed where the tube was found there was also a kerosene hurricane lamp. In the kerosene he soaked me hose tubing. It is strong stuff made of layers of canvas and rubber, and eren when soaked with kejpsene it would probably not burn fuse so that it had probably been going for some time before Patrick caught it. The tanks underground have about two feet of concrete over them. There were five others; beside the one tampered with, which would probably have gone had the flame once got inside the tank.

The heads of the oil companies when approached were reluctant to give an opinion about the violence of the explosion which would have happened. The subject was very contentious for ao one could say exactly how the petrol would behave. No doubt, however, petrol fumes lit in a strongly enclosed small space, such as a tank. would have caused a very violent explosion, possibly wrecking the Loan and Mercantile Building, which stands beside the station. 'He took some of the hose away with him," Mr. Patrick told a “Sun” mail, “and I thought he might be going to try the same game o'u some other station. I drove round several of the others, hut found nothing had happened.”

MAY BE FIRE-RAISERS POLICE OATH OF SECRECY (Special to THE SUN) . CHRISTCHURCH, Today. When at one o'clock this morning two strange men were accosted by a storeman in the Christchurch City Council’s yard at the corner of Montreal Street and Moorhouse Avenue, one of them threatened him with a revolver if he reported anything regarding their visit. Both mein made a quick getaway. One of the men ran off when they were first seen, but the other stopped to argue it out with the storeman before he left. The police have apparently some hope of tracing the men, who, they believe, may have had something to do with the incendiarism that has been rife in the city of late. The storeman and all the council officials to whom the incident has been reported have been bound to silence by the police. Storeman Growcott told a Sun reporter today that he could give absolutely no details of the affair, since he was under an oath to the police. A high council official was in the same position, although he did not deny the finding of the men and their threats. There is every reason to believe that the police attach great importance to the incident.

NINTH SUSPICIOUS FIRE NEIGHBOUR GIVES ALARM Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Today. An attempt was made by incendiarists on Sunday morning t to destroy a temporarily unoccupied house owned by Mr. T. J. Porterfield, in Mersey Street, St. Albans. A neighbour gave tlie alarm and a police sergeant pulled out burning bedding before much damage was done. The fire in the Mayor's house on Friday night was the eighth of a similar nature in Christchurch in the past three weeks. The total damage is estimated at £16,000. The police are investigating, but no trace

has yet been found to lead to the criminals. Mr. Archer’s loss is £3OO. -He believes nothing of value was stolen. The thieves’ first attempt to get into the house was through the breakfast room. There >re two sets of footprints, one large and the other much smaller, leading from the back of the washhouse across the garden to the breakfast room window, and marks on the catch of the window indicate that an attempt was made to force it. After being foiled in this attempt it is believed that the thieves gained entrance through one of the dining room windows.