OUTBREAK AT JUDD AND SONS FOUNDRY.

Thames Star, Volume XXX, Issue 9025, 24 March 1898, Page 2

OUTBREAK AT JUDD AND SONS FOUNDRY.

THE PREMISES GUTTED.

The Fire Brigade were twice called out last evening. Scarcely had the bells ceased ringing for the incipient fire near the Public Library, when the alarm was again'pealed out to herald a fire of real magnitude. This was in the well-known foundry of Messrs Judd and Sons, whose premises occupy the width of the block between Queen and Kirkwood streets. The main building of Messrs Judd's works is the moulding department, and the patternshop, a smaller structure, runs parallel to it; the connecting link being a sort of shed or lean to. near which the boiler is situated. The fire apparently started over the boiler and spread right and left, till both the moulding shop and the parallel building were in flames. The fire was well on its way before it was discovered, and by the time tnat the first peals of the bell were heard the glare' had already begun to light-, up the town, as the flames inoui te<i quickly along the rafters to the highest woodwork of the moulding shop. The early comers assisted th p members of the Judd family to couple on the firm's hose, drawing the water from a private supply used in connection with the machinery. The hose was as soon as possible connected, and ♦jwo leads were brought into play, attention been directed to the moulding department and then to the Bmithy, The absence in one case of a nozzle was, however, a serious handicap. The fire bad now mounted high in the buildings, but it had very little to consume beyond the rafters and frame-works, as the rest of the structure is of corrugated iron. This circumstance made the flames look more dreadful than they really were, as the heat was not so stifling as to prevent •a near approach Immediately after Messrs Judd's hose was coupled, the Shortland and Grahamstown branches of the Fire Brigade arrived, but it was already seen • that though the iron walls would escape demolition, the gutting of the buildings was certain. The firemen, under Captains Addison and and Gibbons, quickly got to work, two leads being brought in from Kirkwood street and two from the other side. The flames were subdued within a short time, but what with fire, water, etc., the contents of the foundry, •excepting the machinery, were left in a state of total wreck. A sensational incident of the battle was the fall of Firemen A. Billing and A. Garrett through the roof of the shed. The latter went through head foremost and came up with several nasty bruises while Foreman Billing's hand was so severely injured as to necessitate prompt medical aid. After the fire was extinguished and the water drawn off, the dreary occupation of emptying the water out of the moulding holes began. To clear up and restore order will naturally be a task of no little difficulty.

Mr Judd could not form any definite estimate of the damage last night, but puts it roughly at £1000. Valuable moulds and patterns were destroyed, and some of the belting damaged, but die machinery is intact. We understand that there is an insurance of £100 on the building and £200 on the dwelling-house in the Victorisn Office.