Fire on the Mararoa.

Manawatu Herald, 20 October 1894, Page 2

Fire on the Mararoa.

A fire broke out on board the 0.0. Mararoa at 3.80 on Wednesday morning at Port Chalmers, where she is undergoing her periodical overhaul. The flames had a good hold by the time the firemen arrived on the scene. After an hour's battle the brigade got the fire under. About £500 damage was done. The chief officer (Mr Meredith) thinks he was the last person in the engine-room that night. There was then no fire in the furnaces, and everything was apparently safe. The engine-room is close to the fore* castle, where the fire broke out. The doors from the firemen's quarters in the forecastle to the engine-room were left open, as usual, for the purpose of giving access in case of fire. There is little doubt that the fire originated in one of the banks, and not in the engine-room. The circumstances of the fire point strongly to incendiarism. The Mararoa is valued at £60,000. As is the rule with the Company, half that amount is held by itself, and the other half is in a London office. The general impression in shipping circles at Port Chalmers is that the fire is the work of some tramp, who may also have started the fire in the Taviuni in the Graving Dock. In the Mararoa's case, only a person familiar with the run of the ship could have got to the place where the fire started without breaking his neck.— Press Assooia* tion.