TANEATUA FISH SHOP BURNED TO GROUND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 76, 11 April 1949, Page 4

TANEATUA FISH SHOP BURNED TO GROUND

With flames leaping- high into the air to a height of well over ' SO feet, a fish shop, the property of Mr T. Wilson, in the main street of Taneatua was burned to the ground at about midnight last night. Working feverishly with a bucket chain, residents of the town managed to keep the outbreak in check until the arrival of the Whakatane Volunteer Fire Brigade and managed to save a number of businesses in the same block.

Though the fire was first discovered at 11.40 last night the alarm was not given for the brigade at Whakatane until about 12.15. During that time the postmaster at Taneatua had been trying to get through by phone but was unable to reach Whakatane. Later, some resident drove through and tried to give the alarm at the station. Soon after the alarm, the brigade was on the road and when the fire was reached it was found that it bad been kept in check from the drapery and grocer shop of Mr R. S. Ricketts next door, by the local residents using the bucket chain. The brigade then took over the fight with the quad and trailer pump, taking water from the household water tanks in the near vicinity because there was no other source of supply available. The,fire at this stage was a blazing inferno and the whole shop was roaring away in flames. Concentrating on the section near the remainder of the block of shops the brigade held the fire and because of lack of water had to let the remainder burn itself out. i

On the other side of the fish shop is an empty pass way and at the back was a fairly large cooler insulated with about eight inches of bitumen-soaked cork. This soon blazed up and firemen had to chop it away with their axes • to stop it getting away.

Separating Mr Rickett’s business from the fish shop is a thick concrete wall. At one stage this was so hot it could not be approached too closely, while the heat thrown from the fire through the wall damaged a large number of groceries that will probably be a complete write-off. As soon as the fire broke out Mr Ricketts started taking his drapery supplies out of the shop and stacked them on the pavement under tarpaulins. It was raining hard at one stage and this, combined with some of the water used to fight the fire, damaged much of the drapery.

When the fire was first discovered it was raining hard but unfortunately it eased off and did not help the fire fighters to any great extent. Indicative of the shortage of water before the brigade arrived, the local residents in their attempts to hold the fire had to block the gutters with sacks to catch rain water.

This same block of shops was destroyed by fire around 1930 when it was then swept to the ground. ' The cause of last night’s outbreak is not known.

Car On Fire

Catching fire on the early hours of Saturday morning a model A sedan, owned by Mr S. Lovell, McGarvey Road, Whakatane, was almost destroyed-but quick work by the Whakatane Volunteer Fire Brigade saved much of it. The alarm was given about 5.50 a.m. and the brigade had little difficulty in extinguishing the outbreak.