FIRE IN GISBORNE SCHOOL

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1932, Page 8

FIRE IN GISBORNE SCHOOL

HAVOC IN COOKERY ROOM.

LARRIKINS turn on gas. Gisborne, Nov. 7. A deliberate attempt to burn down a portion of the Gisborne Central School buildings- was made last night, and but > for the prompt arrival of the lire brigade an extensive fire would almost certainly have occurred. The fire was started in the cookery instruction room. From the appearance .of the cookery room after the fire had been put out it would appear that the outbreak had been caused by larrikins. The cookery room is ■ a one-storey wooden structure situated between the main school buildings and the technical school, and as the windows, though closed, had not been fastened, the room could easily be entered. Shortly before 7 p.m. a girl who was walking along . Palmerston Road gave the alarm. The flames were confined to the wooden fittings of the room. A glance round the room satisfied the brigade superintendent that the outbreak was not an accidental one. and the police were informed. The cookery room contained two gas stoves, two electric stoves, and a number of gas rings. Almost all had been turned on. The gas rings were placed in positions to ignite the . wooden benches! Four or five gas rings had been placed on shelves below the benches, with the. result that the woodwork was blazing, when the brigade entered, and two rings, which had either been placed on the floor or had burned their wmy through it, had set the wooden flooring alight. One of the gas stoves had been piled high with inflammable articles such as aprons, umbrellas, pastry boards, books and exercise books, and the gas jets beneath had been lighted. 1 . • The damage was not very extensive, being confined to wooden fittings and the floor. Byoken eggs were strewn about, the room, and an attempt had appaiently been made to scramble eggs in a saucepan on one of the‘gas rings. An electric iron also had been turned on, and, after it had been heated, laid flat on one of the ' benches, the top of which was charred. , The fi’-es had been burning for about half-an-hour before the alarm was given. ’ Not satisfied with the damage they had caused in the cookery department, the. intruders also played havoc with the equipment for the infant classes, temporarily held on the wide veiandaa of the infant school. Desks were overturned, and inkwells were thrown about. In the course of police investigations made to-day one schoolboy, aged 11 years, suspected of being implicated in an attempt to burn down the building, was interviewed, and it is believed that statements he made lead to the apprehension of two other lads.