FIRE ON RIVER BANK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 838, 12 May 1910, Page 3

FIRE ON RIVER BANK.

At about half past five on Tuesday evening a fire broke out in the Whitauui Fibre Coy’s Whitau mill, which totally destroyed the scutching shed. The mill has for some time past been working both day and night, and on Tuesday evening when everything was ready to start the night shift one of the lamps in the scutching shed exploded, and the bottom portion of it fell on to the fibre on the rail, which immediately caught fire. One of the scutchers was rather badly burned about the arms and hands, in an endeavour to smother the flames. On account of the very dry state of the fibre the fire soon had a strong hold, and although the bucket brigade concentrated their efforts on this part of the building it was soon apparent that there was no hope of saving it. They therefore directed there attention to the engine room, and alter a most strenuous struggle with the flames were successful in confining the fire to the other portion of the building. The scutching shed was totally destroyed together with a large quantity ol fibre. The Whitauui Company have been most unfortunate with this mill, as it was only in October last that it was totally destroyed by fire, inflicting heavy loss on the owners.

On Tuesday a large quantity of dry fibre was brought in from the paddocks on account of the threatening state of the weather, and it is estimated that there was fully six or seven tons of fibre in the shed at the time of the fire, all of which was destroyed. No damage was done to the other part of the building, and stripping operations were re-com-menced at midday yesterday. It is understood that the re-building of the scutching shed will be commenced almost immediately. There was no insurance on the building, and the loss to the owners is about