AUCKLAND FIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1931, Page 7

AUCKLAND FIRE

POWER LINESMAN KILLED DESTRUCTION OF BIG STORE STOCK VALUED AT £21,000 KAURI GUM FEEDS FLAMES By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. A life was lost as a result of a fire Which to-night destroyed the large grading store of Lichtenstein and Paykdl, Ltd., exporters, on Great South Road, adjoining the Penrose overhead railwaybridge. °rhomas Whitford Knox, an emSloyeo of the Auckland Electric Power ;oard, was fatally injured during efforts by the board’s staff to cut off power in the vicinity of the fire. The grading store stocks, consisting •f kauri gum, skins, hides and pelts and valued at about £21,000, and the plant valued at about £lOOO were a total loss. The building itself was valued at. £7OOO. The building was one-storeyed, of '“ wood and corrugated iron and covered an area of 30,000 square feet. The flames had spread almost throughout the buildjig by the time fire brigades arrived a few minutes after they had been informed. The position from, the start was hopeless and the first move by the firemen was to run a lead of hose to the works of the Australian, Glass Manufacturing Co., Ltd. nearby. The side of the burning building facing the glass works soon collapsed inwards, to be followed a little later by the wall on .the Great South Road side. Fortunately the wind was blowing from the west and carrying the ■parks away' from the glassworks and across a large vacant’ space between the store and the Penrose'Bub-station. GUM BLAZES FIERCELY: The heat was terrific,, hoses having to be played on .the glass -works for a considerable time before the building, although it is of corrugated iron, was out of danger. In. a remarkably short time the store was reduced to a tangled mass of burning Wreckage. Kauri gum spread over a large, portion of the building on the Grea,t ■ South Road side for grading purposes burned fiercely and the firemen could do little more than play hoses on the. power poles. The cause of the. fire.i» unknown. Twelve men - were employed, it being practically the busiest time of the year at the store. The men finished work about 5.45 p.m. and left the building about a quarter of an hour later. There were no fire* or furnaces in ■■the buildDuring the efforts by the power board’s staff to cut off the power near the fire, Mr. Knox, who was a married man 31 years’ old residing at Epsom, was working with a companion linesman on a transformer standard outside the Penrose post office when he received a shock as he was cutting out a switch. The shock caused Mr. Knox to topple from the platform and he fell to the pavement head first. He was taken to the Auckland hospital in an unconscious state. His injuries were a fracture of the skull and he died within two hours of admission. Knox leaves two young children, both under five years of age. ► Mr. Paykel stated that although the building, stock and plant were insured the los* would be heavy.