MYSTERY OF LINER FIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1932, Page 7

MYSTERY OF LINER FIRE

ALARMS FROM BULLION ROOM

FIRE APPARATUS FOUND EMPTY.

MASTER’S REPORT AMPLIFIED.

BRITISH SURVIVOR’S COMPLAINT. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 7 p.m. Paris, May 23, Captain Vicq's supplementary report on the burning of the liner Philippar discloses (hat the electric alarm communicating with the bullion room mysteriously sounded, the first time eight days before the disaster and the second time half an hour before tho fire. Tho officers immediately inspected the bullion room on both occasions and found no signs of any tampering.

Captain Vicq adds that some of the firefighting apparatus was curiously found empty when the fire started. Captain Vicq inspected all the first and second-class cabins accessible before he left the ship and found nobody. He spent the whole morning superintending the rescue of the survivors.

A British survivor emphasises the deplorably inadequate warning of fire, of which his first intimation was smoke and flames bursting into his cabin. He and his wife found places in a boat, the seams of which leaked until the soaking, closed them, compelling the occupants to bail with their hats. The ordeal was prolonged by the unsuitability of the food aboard the Mahsud and by tho intense heat, which brought the pitch bubbling from the seams on the steamer’s deck.