AFTER THE FIRE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19140, 25 October 1927, Page 10

AFTER THE FIRE.

DAMAGE AT AULSEBROOK'S. MOST OF WORKERS TO BE RETAINED. Only the walls and the floor of the top floor of Aulsebrook's biscuit and confectionery factory are now standmg as a result of Sunday night's disastrous fire. The second floor, it is found, is burned only in places, and the roof of the office is blackened with smoke Yesterday the scene was visited by largo crowds of people, whose Labour Day arrangements had been upset by the weather. ' The building was in the usual chaos .following a blaze of such, magnitude, and everywhere were water and charred remains of the top floor structure. Firemen splashing about, putting the final touches to their work of the previous night. Many windows were smashed aud melted glass was scattered all over the building. The roof of the top floor had, 1 alien in and presented a scene of twisted metal and burnt timber. All day long sanoke and steam issued in clouds from the building, heaps of material still smouldering. Although, it is too early to give an accurate estimate of the damage, 1 expect it will run into some thousands of pounds," said Mr T. B. Crawshaw, general manager, to a representative of The Prkss yesterday. "We will have two big departments going again to-morrow, and the whole place will lie in action within.a week. The packing department is the most affected, and the girls will not be able to work until the benches, etc., are cleaned up and the department put to rights. A good many of the packers will he out of work, but only for a day or two." _ One of the largest amounts.of biscuit in store for years was totally destroyed, and the report of the foreman, who made an inspection yesterday, was that there was not a biscuit left. It is reported that the main plant and mach« inery are practically undamaged. The sole proprietor, Mr E. E. MeDougall, was ono of the last to hear of the fire. He arrived in Christchurch from Parnassus early yesterday morning and made a tour of the factory. He stated that the factory would keep on as many hands as work could be found for. Those out of work will be off for only a comparatively short time, married meii being the first to bo considered. Altogether 550 hands were employed and the proportion retained would be great. The loss of packing and storage would be the biggest factor in disorganising the work, but outside accommodation would sqqn he found. As soon as the furnaces were pumped out, and the ovens, which were only superficially damaged, were repaired, the work would -continue. Mr McDougall said that there would be a considerable loss as a result of the fire, but the factory had managed to do fairly well in spite of a bad year, and when the wTirlTwas reorganised and progressing as usual the loss would not be so very great. "• A little damage was done in C. S. McCully's timber-yard, opposite Aulsebrook's factory, flying embers having set fire to some stacked timber.

A peculiar feature of the fire, stated Deputy-Superintendent J. Blake yesterday, was that a wooden door, between the room in which the fire started and one of the oven rooms, was hardly scorched, but a supposedly fireproof window, immediately above, melted with the intense heat.

As is customary, the premises were searchingly examined at noon on Saturday and the watchman found no signs of fire. All was well, also in the early hours'of Sunday evening.