BIG BLAZE AT LONGBURN

Chronicle (Levin), 10 January 1948, Page 4

BIG BLAZE AT LONGBURN

FREEZING WORKS BUILDING DESTRGYLR A lire which broke .out lagt evening in the fe'llmongery at the Co-operative Yholesale- •Society 's freezing works at Longburn, completely gutte.cl the building and caused* extehsive but at present nnknpwn damag.e to the. woo.1 ingide. •Belie.ved to have started as a resplt of spontaneous combustion.in the wool stacked in the store, the fire was tirst noticed shortly after 9 p.m. by one ox the 'employees when flames broicp throngh the wooden roof of the building. ±t had been inspected by thp night watchman a shOrt wjiije previously when every thing appeared , to be m order. The lire Jiad a strong hold when it was flrst noticed, flames and blaclc smoke shooting high intp the air. ' In the absence of the wprks pnanager (Mr. W. E. Wilson) and the- cliier engineey (Mr. Pierard), the assistanL engineer (Mr. Waters) immediatel; .... organised gangs of night-shift workeG-iJ apd sent ihe alarm to the Palmerston North Fire Rrigade. Although out o£

th,e inetropolitan area an engme and six men under Deputy Superintendent N. Edgar proceeded to. , the seene. The freezing workg is equipped with its own water mains boosted by a pump ana when the bi'igade afrived works employees alreadv had one hose playing on the" fire. The brigade laid out a gecond lead olf thd maihs and also used two oth.er l.eads which drew water from au artifieia) lake hojding 1,5.00,00.0 gallons. The best that could be done was to extinguish the fire which had too big a hold for tfee building to be savetl, ana prevent the outbreak from spreading to adjacent buildings. Eortunately "no wind was blowing, otherwise the task of the firefighters would haye been made eonsiderabiy . more diflicult autj . the fire might have had moj.'e disastrous CQnsequences. . There was a large quantity of wool, mostly iQPse in bins but some in bales in the store. ' The blaze, when the rotox ca'ught on fire, gave the outbreak a - spectacular appearance, the glow beirag plainly. visible for miles around. Coming at a .time when the works are fnlly extended cpping with the. killrng of fat lambs, the fire could have had disastrous resultg for the farming communities which the works serve. It was not possible to aseertain last night Ihe amount of damage caused by the outbreak. ^ At a late hour last night works employees were engaged removing the iron from the collapsed roof ofl; the wool which was still smonldering.