Prompt Action Prevents Serious Outbreak Of Fire In City Area

Wanganui Chronicle, 25 July 1949, Page 4

Prompt Action Prevents Serious Outbreak Of Fire In City Area

Prompt action by an unknown person who gave the alarm, and a smart turn out by the Wanganui Fire Brigade were’ factors which helped to prevent a serious outbreak in the city area early on Saturday morning, when a fire occurred in a detached building at the rear of the premises of R. and E. Tingey and Co., Ltd. The alarm was given from a street, box opposite the City Council offices in St. Hill Street at 1.45 a.m. and when two machines turned out from Central Station smoke and flame were showing up well. It was found that a lire had broken out among some large packing cases, full of straw, which had been used as containers for panes of glass. They were well ablaze and a single delivery 200 feet in length was run out. The lire was under control in less than a minute, but the main store, separated from this building by about eight feet, was threatened at one stage. When the brigade arrived the paint was burnt and blistered and the fire could have spread to the main store in a matter of seconds.

Damage in the storeroom was confined to the packing cases, which wore burnt out, and to charred rafters. As the call was from the city area, a machine from Castlecliff sub-station also turned out as a precautionary measure.