£40,000 Damage by Fire

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 53, 25 November 1937, Page 9

£40,000 Damage by Fire

■Preas Association.)

AUCKLAND BLAZE Motor-Body Works Destroyed; 16 Vehicles Lost PETROL EXPLODES 4 --

(By Telegraph-

h AUCKLAND; Last Night. f More than £40,000 worth o£ damage Was done by a fire which. broke out in Ith* motor body-building works of Oaraaagh and Company, Ltd., importers and manufacturers of truck spare parts, im St. Martin 'a lane at 3 o ;clock this morning. The insurances are keld by Ihe company and by the owners of tho trucks and service cars that were deatroyed to the Value of about £20,000 and the net loss to the company is estimated by the managing director, Mr. Charles Oavanagh, to be over £20,000. The building was completely destroyed, 16 trucks and service cars and chassis Trere lost," and 60 kits of workmen's tools value d at about £2000 were lost. > - Neighbduring buildings had several windows1 melted or broken and the walls alightly scorched, and had it not 'been for the determined efforts of 40 fireinen the maia building of the " company fronting Symonds street and connected with the destroyed factory by a wooden fetircase would probably have caught alight. As it was the rear portion was scorched and all the windows weTe broken. Mr. Cavanagh said his company held insurances of about £11,000 with the Kew Zcaland, South British, Norwich tJnion and Royal insurance companies.. Of this about £3000 was for the building and the remainder for work in progress, plant, machinery* and materials. Beveral insurances held by customers on their trucks and cars would come to about £9000. The alarm was received at 3 o 'clock and two engines twere immediately 'dispatched. A f ew minutes later two more engines, one from Parnell and one from the Western Districts, arrived and for 15 minutes with five leads in playthe firemen had an anxious time trying to eontrol the tremendous fiames.Because of the extent of .the fire it eould not be definitely ascertained what Mused the outbreak, but. an explosion ■oon after the start caused the fiames °to fan out and start to run xight through the building. This and the lubsequent explosions from petrol fcanks, oil drums and oxy-acetylene cylinders wakened many perso.ns. .ip. . nearby houses frqxa their sle.ep eould evenbeheard up to halfi.fe taile away. Streams of spectgtors contiuued to (Come from all directions to watch the tiro .unfil well after daylight and policemen had to be stationed on Symonds atreet to prevent motor cars from xuuining across the hoses. The Grafton 'bridge was used as a vantage point by imany and at least 600 persons watchcd the fire from about 3.15 until after 4 •o 'clock.

So intense was the heat aud so high .were the fiames that the glow and huge pall of oil-laden smoke eould be seen from ibe waterfront in one dlrection and from beyond Newmarket in the other. Even after 40 firemen had gained eontrol over .the fiames after 15 minutea the explosions continued to occur and the sky was bright red for two hours later. The outbreak was definitely under eontrol about 3.20, but no efforts eould prevent the building, which was atiawa from end to end when the first engines arrived, from being destroyed, and smail "spot" fires still had to b^ watched to-day. ,Two trucks which had been brought out of the building by neighbours caught fiT8''as they stood on the other side of §t. Martin 's lane, and in the building were to be seen the bodies oi other trucks and cars burning fiercely. The walls of the building quickly "burned out and collapsed' followed by the xoof, so that the interior wai? re;vealed as a mass of sweeping flame and ismoke with the rcd-hot chassis oi "burning cars and" trucks glcwing like embers inside. Mr. Cavanagh stated that he eould not state definitely what had caused the outbreak, but he thought it may havo been commenced by a short circuit in the electrical equipment. The fire would not stop the firm from earrying on its business in the usual manner and ihe was indebted to a number of other Itoachbuilding firms for offers made to Wllow him the nse of their premises.