FIRE DISRUPTS TELEPHONE SYSTEM
Received Monday, 7 p.m. fcSYDNEY, June 16. Telephone ecpiipment worth mor.t llian £100,000 was seriously damageu and probably dostroyed in a speetacu mr city rfire iast night. The ftre, which uurned out the transmission laboratory 111 Umlei-Avood Street, between Georgt and Pit-ts -Sireets, near Circular Quay,; cut olV all trunk line services to UTeax jun'-th of rSyd-ney. Twenty thousand people jammed streets in the area. The tiames roareu through four of the five floors and Lheu gutted most of tlie adjoining Morgan tirambers Building, which is a six storeyed structu-re in George Street. A11 inspection tliis nionii.ng revealed that mncli telephone equipmcnt wai saved, but that the total dama'ge by t-hc iire was probably £150,000. "The dam age . could not have been worse, " saio an official of the Postmaster-Ceneral V Oepartment. Eiremen risked their lives many times, and tottering ' walls, falling mnsoji,i'y, live wires, p,nd explosions added to ihe hazards. After the flre tlie firemen found in the vvreckifge u .full rease of gelignite, wliich had 'apparentlypurvived a fail as well as the JLre, and a 400-galio'n tank of petrol. A resident of George Street noticed a glow in tlie window of the laborator\ ouilding and. telephoned the flre bri ga'de. The flre spread with amazm„ speed through the top 0 floors, aiul burst out through the roof in a blazv which could be seen from nearly evary Sydney sulmrb. ■ About 200 pohcemei! struggled to control the crowd which pressed about engines and hampered thc iirciifen. Cylindcrs of gas, uscd for ciitting an:-' jointing cables, sent slieets of flame througli the roof -and out througti .tlie windows. The noise was deafening, an*. the blast of -the explosions was fel. hundreds of yards aAvay. The wind ilrov-e thc flames across a lane and llrtcaught the eighth floor of the Metropolitan Business College, but it was soon checked there. The flre brigades worked brilliahtly to save tlie rest oi thc city block.
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Chronicle (Levin), 17 June 1947, Page 5
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324FIRE DISRUPTS TELEPHONE SYSTEM Chronicle (Levin), 17 June 1947, Page 5
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