FILMS ABLAZE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1450, 15 January 1924, Page 5

FILMS ABLAZE.

PLUCKY OPERATOR AVOIDS A PANIC. NEARLY LOSES HIS LIFE. (By Telegraph—Press Association). CHRISTCHURCH, Monday. In a plucky attempt to save a panic among the audience when a film caught fire, Mr J. A. Matthews, proprietor of the Alexandra Picture Theatre, at Rangiora, was almost suffocated in the operating box on Saturday night. Mr Matthews was working the projector when a film suddenly burst into flames. He quickly switched on the house lights, and closed the projection opening, also the door, in the hope that lack of air would put thei fire out. The pianist went on playing and did not know till 'later that a fire had occurred. A minute or two elapsed before anyone went to inquire the cause of the stoppage, and a young man found the interior of the operating box full of smoke. Mr Mathews was lying on floor unconscious. Lack of air had extinguished the burning celluloid, but the fumes had overpowered the plucky operator. He was brought back to consciousness with considerable difficulty after medical aid had been secured. One of his hands was very badly burned. The projector was valued at £IOO, and over 100 feet of film were destroyed.