SPECTACULAR FIRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 54, 6 March 1939, Page 8

SPECTACULAR FIRE

BLAZE AT AUCKLAND TIMBER MILL DESTROYED SUDDEN SPREAD OF FLAMES ( Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, March 5. Spreading with amazing rapidity over more than an acre of buildings, a fire totally demolished the old-estab-lished timber mill of D. Goldie and Sons, in St. Marys Bay, to-night. While 30 police from the city and suburban stations strove to keep back thousands of spectators, about 60 firemen fought one of the most spectacular outbreaks in Auckland of recent years. The damage is estimated between £lO,OOO and £20,000. In his rounds at seven o'clock the watchman at the mill noticed an incipient fire in a pile of shavings underneath a hopper immediately behind the firm’s office. He ran to a fire alarm less than a hundred yards away, but almost before the glass was broken the flames were leaping 30 feet into the air. Within ten minutes the whole of the buildings were ablaze from end to end. “More than an acre of land was just a seething mass of flames,” stated the watchman. The brigades from the city and suburban stations confined their activities to prevent the spread of the flames to the adjoining boatbuilding yards and petrol and oil bulk stores which were within a few yards of the centre of the fire. In this they were successful, but the flames, carried by a north-easterly breeze, converged on rhe headquarters of the Victoria Cruising Club. While members of the club worked frantically to remove dingheys from the burning pavillion. the fire destroyed five launches, including one untried speedboat, which were hauled up. and severely damaged two motorcars. After two hours’ work the firemen had the outbreak under control, but hoses were still being played on the Barnes shortly before midnight.