PAPER STOCKS BURNED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 44, 1 November 1946, Page 5

PAPER STOCKS BURNED

DESTRUCTIVE PAPER MILLS FIRE

THURSDAY'S OUTBREAK

Spontaneous combustion was . apparently responsible for the outbreak of a destructive fire in the Whakatane Paper Mills store of waste paper yesterday morning shortly before noon. The flames were mainly confined to the ground floor of the , three storeyed concrete building where the paper was stored, but : a small amount of damage was also sustained by rolls of finished paper on the floor immediate- '■'• ly above. The top floor, which also contained rolls of paper, escaped.

Both the Whakatane Volunteer Fire Brigade and the Mill Brigade fought the flames, together with mill workers who assisted in carrying out the bundles of waste paper. The teams of men worked underi difficulties due to the heavy mass, of smoke, which obscured all vision, inside the building.. Although saturated, the piles of waste paper, packed tightly into the store up to_ ceiling level, are still and are expected to continue to do, so for some time. The fire fighters spent some-two hours before the? flames were properly under control. " Altogether, there were 125 tons of waste paper, representing approximately a week's supply, in the store, whilst the amount of finished paper., in the rest of the building was roughly 200 tons. The total value of J the paper stored was over £25,000, although ' only several hundred pounds worth was lost. The fire makes the third which the Mill has suffered in the store. The last occurred last October when. £750 worth of stock was lost. The first fire in 1938 was the most serious, when 400 tons of waste paper were destroyed. On this last occasion, the building itself sustained little damage. The contents were covered by insurance.