GARAGE DESTROYED.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20104, 6 December 1930, Page 18

GARAGE DESTROYED.

SMIRTY CARS AND TRUCES LOST. (PRESS ASSOCIATIOIT TZLZQRAM.) HASTINGS, December 5. 'About thirty cars, only two or three of which ■were new, •were destroyed by fire which, following a violent explosion (apparently caused by benzine), completely gutted a two-storeyed -wood and iron annexe to J. E. Peach and Co.'s garage at the corner of Eastbourne street and Karamu road, Hastings, in the early hours of thi3 morning. The fire was one of the fiercest and Buret spectacular seen in. Hastings during recent years, and, in. hardly more than ten minutes, had done its destructive work. The flames lighted up the > whole neighbourhood so vividly that it seemed, at first, as though even the buildings across the street were on fire. The brigade was quickly on the Sceno and did magnificent work against heavy'odds. The main part of the garage, in Trhich a very large number of cars were stored, was separated from the annexe by a thick brick wall, and was not affected, except by smoke and ■water. The annexe was an old building, at one time known as Sorensen's Buildalarms were given simultaneously at 12.40 a.m. Constable McCoil was on beat duty when his attention was by a violent explosion. He immediately gave the alarm. Mr C. Eberhard, manager of the garage, was putting his car away m the garage when the first explosion occurred, and, according to him, he "picked himself up from the middle of the road." A resident near by said she was lawakened by the explosion, followed by another a few minutes after. She then saw that the building was a mass Of flames. The cars and trucks burnt were all Second-hand except two trucks. The fire, ;while it lasted, was an aweinspiring spectacle. The heat from the blazing buildings was intense, and explosions shook the police station, about 150 yards, away. It was fortunate that there was- a thick brick wall between the two buildings, otherwise the damage would have been more extensive.

A remedy discovered by the ancient people called the Tncas has been _ used successfully'by Mr Llewellyn Williams, a young Chicago botanist, fighting the bites of poisonous snakes during a year's trip through the South American 'jungle.' Ssome of the jungles had yardlong* green snakes, the_ bite of which is fatal unless treated immediately by tlie one antidote known, a native preparation discovered by the Incas. They had extensive knowledge of herbs?. Mr Williams says, and this was handed down, from generation to generation.