Police Believe Safebreaker Burnt In Sydney Fire

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 December 1950, Page 5

Police Believe Safebreaker Burnt In Sydney Fire

■SYDNEY, Dec 26 (Recd 8 pm).—The police have found a man’s body among the smouldering ruins of a building in George Street gutted by fire, and a search is proceeding for the body of another man believed to have been trapped on the premises. The police now believe that the charred body found in the ruins may have been that of a skilled safebreaker. Detectives working to confirm this theory are handicapped because the body is beyond visual identification, and the hands are missing. It is suggested that (he fire which caused damage estimated at £lOO,OOO may have been caused by a mishap during the attempted blowing of a safe in an office on the first floor. This brings the total damage caused by seven big fires in the past four months to £1,250,000. The police investigating the fire say there are several mysterious aspects, and they cannot overlook the possibility that a firebug may have started this and other recent big fires. DRIVEN BACK BY HEAT. A policeman who was one' of the first t 0 reach the fire saw smoke pouring from the building, and was told that screams and shouts for help had been heard. He climbed a hoist at the back of the building, but the heat prevented him from penetrating far. Other eye-witnesses say they saw two men run across the roof of the building when the fire was at its height. The body has not yet been identified and if there is a second it is believed to be buried under the collapsed roof and interior walls. The building was a three-storied structure ocupied by a baker, a restaurant, a dry cleaner, a frock salon and an electrical shop, among other tenants. The main problem of the fire brigades was to prevent the fire spreading to adjacent buildings, Including the Sydney branch of the Bank of New Zealand. CROWD DRENCHED. A huge crowd watched the firemen battle with flames with four extension ladders. Police had tb be rushed to the scene to control the crowd, which several times was drenched with water from burst hoses. Firemen managed to save the adjoining six-storey building by pouring thousands o f gallons of water on the threatened wall, and damage was confined to scorched furniture and shattered windows. It is believed the fire started on the first floor. Everything above this level has been destroyed but the damage below it has been largely causec by water.