FILMS ON FIRE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4666, 25 February 1924, Page 1

FILMS ON FIRE.

FIRM LOSES Z 50,000. Motion picture films valued at went up in flames in premises in Brisbane, occupied by thFox Film Corporation of Austrae lasia, Limited. There was not a penny of insurance on the films which were destroyed, and in addition to this loss the metropolitau and country business of the Brisbane branch of the company will be dislocated for many months. The cause of the outbreak is a mystery. The films were stored in a brick vault at the rear of the company’s premises, which are locked at 6 o’clock every night. The only opening is a ventilator at the top of the vault.

When Mr. Hammond, an employee of the company, locked the door of the vault on the evening of the outbreak there were three hundred films stored inside . the walls. Each film contained about 2000 feet so there were over 600,000 feet of valuable film in the vault at the time of the outbreak.

Shortly after 8 o’clock a jet of flame shot hundreds of feet into the air, apd the flames which continued to issue from the building were visible for many miles.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade headquarters are situated only about a hundred yards from the scene of the outbreak. The brigade was quickly on the scene, and extinguished the flames in a few* minutes.

Adjacent to the vault were placed several boxes of films, which were intended to be consigned to Thursday Island. They were to be despatched by the steamer Eastern, but the carter had failed to arrive that afternoon, and the films consequently were not taken to the wharf. All these films were also destroyed.