SULPHUR FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1938, Page 7

SULPHUR FIRE

OUTBREAK AT WESTFIELD WORKS EXPLOSION AND SHEET OF FLAME. SEVERAL MEN SLIGHTLY INJURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, November 30. Three engines from the metropolitan area were called to deal with an outbreak of fire in a sulphur shed at the Westfield artificial fertilizer works at Kempthorne, Prosser and Company’s N.Z. Drug Company Limited. Several works employees received slight burns but were able to resume, their duties after receiving treatment. A number of men were unloading a truck of rock sulphur when the outbreak started. The sulphur is shovelled into a pit below floor level and is conveyed into the shed by means of a mechanical elevatoi’ and conveyor. It is thought that a spark from the mechanism ignited sulphur dust which, when suspended in the atmosphere, is highly inflammable. The ignition of the impregnated atmoshpere was accompanied by a loud explosion and a sheet of flame shot from the elevator well and outward toward the truck where the men were working. One of the men, whose clothing and bare shoulders were covered with sulphur dust, was in the direct line of the flame and his clothing caught fire. He threw himself to the ground and extinguished the smouldering fire by rolling among a pile of empty sacks. His shoulders were scorched in a few places. Two other men received burns on the arms and four workers in the vicinity suffered from the pungent fumes sent’out by the fire. The works fire-fighting equipment was brought into operation and with the arrival of the brigades two leads and numerous chemical extinguishers were brought into play. The flames spread throughout the shed, which contained about 3000 tons of sulphur. The damage was limited to scorching of the roof structure. The stock of sulphur did not suffer as, when stored in bulk, this material burns only superficially.