FIRE IN MOTOR BODY WORKS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28259, 23 April 1957, Page 10

FIRE IN MOTOR BODY WORKS

Spread Prevented By Brigade

Part of an interior wall was burnt, stacks of imported . hardwood timber were damaged and there was water damage to machinery when fire broke out early last evening in the motor-body works of Boon and Company, Ltd., in Ferry road. The alarm was given to the Christchurch Fire Brigade from a street alarm box and by two telephone reports. As the first of the four units arrived from the fire station only two streets away the sound of cracking asbestos roofing and the sight of flames shooting above the wooden part of the building had drawn a small crowd of spectators from as far as Colombo street.

The alarm was given at 7.25 p.m. Half an hour later Mr Neli Boon, the manager, of 81 Mathesons road, arrived to find the fire almpst out. Spread Prevented

The brigade stopped the fire from spreading into the newer brick part of the building. It did not come past two Army trucks which were parked nose-to-tail. The paint on the sides nearest the outbreak was slightly blistered, but otherwise last evening they appeared to be undamaged. About 8 o’clock as the firemen were damping down the last of the smouldering areas they opened the slide at the bottom of a sawdust hopper and stepped back smartly as a shower of sparks shot out. What sawdust there was inside was glowing brightly. Mr Boon said last evening that he had no idea how the fire started. “I left here myself just an hour and three-quarters ago—at 6.15 p.m.”