DISASTROUS FIRE

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19180, 10 December 1927, Page 15

DISASTROUS FIRE

FURNITURE FACTORY DESTROYED. BIG BLAZE AT MOUNT EDEN HEAVY LOSSES CAUSED. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, December 9. One of the most spectacular and destructive fires which Auckland has known for many a day broke out about a quarter to five this morning in Henderson and Pollard's joinery and furniture factory near Mount Edon railway station. All the buildiugs and stacks of timber which covered about half an acre of land were completely swept away. Although no deiinito estimate has yet been made by the owners the loss must bo between £BO,OOO and £IOO,OOO. Nest door about 300,000 feet of timber owned by the Kauri Timber Co., Ltd., was burned, the loss being something over £4OOO. Spreading with extraordinary quickness tho flames began to eat up tho inflammable timber stocks in Henderson and Pollard's yard and soon reached the Kauri Timber Co.'s place. Several houses round about were in great danger of catching alight, but luckily thero was little wind. It took tho combined work of four fire brigades to keep tho tire from spreading to nearby houses. After a time a light wind from the nor'east fanned the flames. The most fortunate feature was the fact that the wind was from tho north and not from the south. Had the flames swept in tho opposite direction thero is no doubt that the Colonial Ammunition Co.'s works, with gunpowder and other explosives stored, would have explodod with a terrific crash. The Kauri Timber Co.'s yards would also have been burned to a cinder. Throughout the day, loads of water were being played on to the burning heaps of debris. For two hours tho fire raged like an inferno and now only a few badly burned machines and a brick.engine room are left. A hundred men have been thrown out of work by the fire. Mr 11. 11. Pollard, one of the owners of the place, was soon watching the blazing buildings. ' In a short time he was overcome by the heat and collapsed. He was taken to his home and is at present in bed. It was at a quarter to five that the fire was first found. Sergeant. Flannigan, who lives at the station overlooking the timber-yards, was awakened by a terrific crackling sound. Looking out from his window ho saw that the yards wore then blazing fiercely. Immediately he gavo the alarm to tho Mount Eden Brigade. So terrific was the heat even oh the asphalt of Enfield street, that when the firemen ran 'out their hoses one had caught alight and • was burned before the water could be turned on. Just after 4.45 the City Brigade was called out. They worked from the Kauri Timber Co.'s yards, doing their utmost to keep- the flames from-spreading. When it was found that, they.:.had., their .part well under 'control one'.of the engines was' gent ''■ home. At 9.30'' the other city engines left the job in the hands of the Mount Eden Brigade. Tie Newmarket Brigade got. the call at 4.50 and after finding that little could be done, they went back to their station at 6.40. No one has any idea how the fire broke out. It seems almost certain that the fire.started in the sash department of the factory. Hardly ton minutes had gone before the whole area was blazing. Tongues of fire leapt hundreds of feet high. Sparks were, thrown in all directions and the inferno was a spectacular sight in the semi-gloom of a grey and early morning sky. With amazing quickness the 'flames raged across the street scorching the big concrete store belonging to. the firm. Luckily the windows wero reinforced with wire netting, which saved' the glass from breaking, and stopped the flames from catching the piles of • timber inside. Near the spot where it is supposed the fire broke out, stands a concrete store belonging to Winstone, Ltd., which was leased to Henderson and Pollard. It was used as a glass store and showroom. The devastating heat warped tho wall of the building and part of the back of it collapsed. The place was badly damaged by heat and wntnr.

Prominent and close to the timber yards is the Colonial Ammunition Company's shot tower, a very high structure, built on the lines of a water tower. Billowing flames went as high as the top portion of the tower and the frame was fired, although it did not 'burn for long, and the shot tower was not badly damaged. A goods train, which left Auckland for Henderson, at 4.40 a.m., was held'up for a short while by the fire. The timber yards bordered on the railway line, and when the fire was at its height the flames were darting right across the permanent way. -The engine-driver had to seize an opportunity when there was a temporary lull, and he got his train safely pa9t the danger point. Later trains were able to pass without difficulty, tho passengers on the suburban inward trains crowding to the windows to get a view of the firemen at work.

Henderson and Pollard's factory was regarded as one of the most up-to-date and best equipped in tho Dominion. It had all the latest machinery installed. Many of the hundred employees who have been thrown out of work will be heavy losers, for most of them had tools, which they left in the place overnight. The hazards of the firefighters' risky work were demonstrated to the crowd of onlookers when Superintendent Williams, of the Mount Eden Brigade, was badly burned tiirough the fall of a red hot electric wire. Though in severe pain the Superintendent continued to direct his men, and to take an active part alongside them. The collapse of the wall of the glass store and the fear that the boiler in the burning mill would explode, or the tall iron smoke-stack fall over wero lively incidentals. Several firemen were painfully scorehed while working in almost unbearable heat.

The Mount Albert Brigade had a particularly busy night. It. had just returned from a suburban call, when it was summoned to the blazing mill. Late in the proceedings a man, who was watching from the railway line, collapsed in a fit, striking his head on the rails. He was carried into a house nearbv.

Such was the heat that dwellings on the opposite side of the street were scorching and smoking. One house occupied by Mr H. Smith, was ablaze at intervals, and its front was soon blistered and blackened. Firemen in the middle of the road kept water playing alternatively on the house and.on themselves, and only by a feat of fine endurance did they maintain their difficult post. Mr Smith'and his neigh-

bours bad begun to remove their furniture before the danger pasapd. Tho telegraph poles were repeatedly flickering into flame and scvoral toppled when they had burned through! Meanwhile, despite the double thickness of the fireproof doors, the fire had got into the brick glass store next to the burning mill and the topmost floor contributed another sheet of flame to the fiery spectacle. Hero were stored valued doors exhibited by the firm at the Dunedin Exhibition. They could not be saved, but large stocks of glass in the first and ground floors were preserved after strenuous efforts, in thr. course of which tho building was flooded with immense quantities of water. Here, too, Mr H. Pollard and several firemen, narrowly escaped injury when the top of the rear wall collapsed on to the railway line. Henderson and Pollard's buildings and contents wero insured with tho Home Insurance Co. to the extent, of £20,000. Another £SOOO is covered with Lloyd's. The Kauri Timber Co.'s r mill and timber at Mount Eden are insurod with the New Zealand Insurance Co. for £14,000. Only a small part of the timber was burned. The engine-room was also damaged, and it is estimated that the total loss is about £4OOO. £50,000 DAMAGE. [THE PEESB Special Service.'] AUCKLAND,,December 9. A survey of the damage caused by the fire indicates that the loss will probabjy be about £50,000. A large safe when opened was found to havo protected the firm's valuable papers from the intense heat.