£l0,000 DAMAGE IN CITY BLAZE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20232, 16 February 1934, Page 7

£lo,ooo DAMAGE IN CITY BLAZE.

Garage and Office Premises Gutted in Cashel Street. FIREMEN HAVE STRENUOUS FIGHT. DAMAGE conservatively estimated at £IO,OOO was done by a fire which gutted the Cashel Street premises of the Royds, Howard Company, motor-car and radio dealers, and other offices, at an early hour this morning. Sweeping through the top floor offices of the two storeyed brick building, the fire destroyed everything. Downstairs, seventeen motor-cars and dozens of radio sets were extensively damaged. * The origin of the fire is a mystery. It is thought to have started in a ground-floor workshop and to have spread with amazing rapidity over both floors. Only the shell of the building was left to-day.

The fire was first noticed by a constable shortly after 3 a.m. When four fire engines and twenty-five firemen arrived at 3.15, the flames had a strong hold and the position appeared hopeless. Flames were bursting through the galvanised iron roof, while clouds of smoke from oil made conditions impossible for the firemen. Three leads of hose were run out from Cashel Street, another three were taken from Manchester Street, and one more came from Hereford Street. The firemen surrounded the building, access to the rear being gained through an alleyway, but the flames could not be subdued. It was a raging inferno, and any attempt to reach the top storey was out of the question. Cars Salvaged. In spite of the fierce nature of the fire, members of the brigade and six constables and a sergeant went into the workshop and garage, at the rear of the premises, and were able to get seven ears out. These were all scorched by the fire and their windows were cracked. Debris was falling all around the party as they carried out this fine piece of salvage work. Explosions then took place on the second floor, when oil drums and Xray film ignited. Clouds of dense black smoke and leaping flames made it appear like an oil fire. In no time, it seemed, the building was reduced to a mere shell, flames fitfully leaping among blackened beams and red-hot sheets of iron. The destruction was complete save for a few radio sets in the front of the premises. Charred Radios. The building was insured for £IO,OOO in the Alliance Office, and was the property of Royds-Howard Company. The stock was insured for £2OOO in the same office. Fifty new radio sets had been taken into the shop yesterday, and till a late hour last night the staff was engaged in unpacking them. Most of the sets were reduced to ashes and twisted bits of metal. Of the seventeen cars in the garage, two were in the workshop. They were not badly damaged, but the paintwork and glass were cracked. The remainder were in the main garage, and all suffered considerably. Most of the cars belonged to the firm, but several were privately owned. One was a Blue Star taxi, which had been put into the garage yesterday with a broken crankshaft. In the case of the private cars and the taxi, the owners’ insurance policies will cover the loss, which in all could not have been less than £9OO. Workshop equipment and the office furnishings and gear were ruined. Several radio sets and racks of spare parts, displayed in the showroom, were considerably damaged. Bulk Patrol Untouched. Two bowsers attached to the garage escaped damage, and the big stores of petrol carried in underground tanks went untouched. A member of the firm stated that the loss sustained was particularly heavy. Big stocks of radio sets, spare parts and motor-car spares Top-floor tenants of the building suffered the most, all stocks being lost, of the°value 065 COver * ng only a P ort ion aJ^ e * SSrS ?• L - Wyles and Co., indent agents and manufacturers’ agents, who occupied offices at the rear of the building, lost stocks of stationery and clocks. The floor-polish plant and stocks of the Celax Manufacturing Company blazed furiously and all was destroyed. Four-figure Damage. Mr Frank Gill, who runs the Home Manufacturing Company, suffered a considerable loss. The insurance coverage was £375, but he estimates the damage at four figures. Among his stock was £2OO worth of carpets, ready for delivery to-day. Mr Masters, manager of W. Watson and Co., X-ray and medical suppliers, estimates his loss at more than £IOOO. At least £2OO worth of X-ray films flashed away, drums of transformer oil burst and ignited, valuable X-ray machinery and electro-medical gear were reduced to twisted metal, and all the firm’s records were lost. “ We supplied about 99 per cent of the South Island hospitals with X-ray film, and now there is nothing,” he said. When Mr Masters was called to the fire at 3.10 a.m., he tried to get to his office up a side stairway, but was forced down by billowing oil smoke. Cartridges Explode. Another heavy loser was the Electrical and General Import Co., which carried an extensive stock of varied articles. The manager, Mr F. E. Bate, is at present in Timaru. Here, a case of cartridges that are used to heat soldering irons, exploded with great violence. Thev were for delivery to the Public Works Department on tender. Five suits in for cleaning, and other damage amounting to £SO, was done m the small office occupied by Mr G T>. Heaney-Glenn. of the Christchurch

Valet Service. There was no insurance. Insured in the Excess Office for £IOO, about £4OO worth of stock was destroyed in the office of Mr H. O. Sinclair, indent and manufacturers’ agent. Bundles of towels, stationery and other goods went up in smoke. All the firms lost their records, but the loss sustained by a firm of insurance agents was particularly severe. Mr W. V. Siddall, an accountant, could find only one deed box, twisted in the flames and with its contents badly scorched. Hoover Service, Ltd., vacuum cleaner agents, suffered heavy losses. The transmitter, receiver and associated gear, as well as valuable papers and other records, were burnt in the rooms of the Radio Society of Christchurch. Discussing the fire, Mr Q. C. Warner, superintendent of the Christchurch Fire Brigade, said that the blaze had evidently started on the ground floor, in a workshop half-way down the building. Once the flames got to the top floor it was a matter of minutes before they spread throughout. , “ Burnt Like Tinder,” Thin wooden partitions only divided the various top-floor offices, and these burnt like tinder, he said. In no time, the building two and a half chains deep had been swept by the flames. The superintendent said that he would like to pay a tribute to the policemen who had assisted the firemen in salvaging the cars from the garage. They had done admirable work under dangerous conditions. The high pressure water supply also was excellent—better than he had ever experienced in city fires. The brigade could not get to the top floor because of the dense volume of oil smoke coming from one of the offices, and the flames took such a hold on the woodwork that a save was well-nigh impossible. Previous Fire. Not very long ago, there was an outbreak of fire in the garage, although not a great deal of damage was done. On that occasion, some petrol caught fire. Mr G. H. Royds, manager of RoydsHoward Company, was out of Christchurch at the time of this morning’s fire, but Mr Geoffry Royds, who manages the radio side of the business, was early on the scene. Mr E. LWyles, of E. L. Wyles and Co., is in Auckland and Mr F. E. Bate, manager of the Electrical and General Import Co., is in Timaru.