BIG FIRE IN PALMERSTON

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4424, 8 March 1930, Page 3

BIG FIRE IN PALMERSTON

NORTH

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO FORD MOTORS PLANT.

One of the most disastrous fires in the history of Palmerston North was noticed at 9.32 o’clock on Thursday evening, when the repair and paint shops of Ford Motors (Manawatu), Ltd., Rangitikei St., were almost completely destroyed by an outbreak which raged fiercely until 11.30 o’clock. Although the brigade was handicapped by low water pressure —the gauge only being at 501b5., when the alarm was received —the firemen made a splendid save, confining the blaze to a series of wooden structures. No insurances were available last evening, hut it is apparent that Eord Motors will be heavy losers, it being understood that 27 se-cond-hand vehicles and seven new cars were lost. Fortunately, only a slight easterly wind was blowing at the time or the consequences might have been greater. It was an exciting lire, the danger from explosive and combustible materials making the brigade’s task a hazardous one. Fortunately no one was seriously injured, although Air. J. Reid, an employee of Ford Motors, suffered severe burns to one of his hands in endeavouring to push a car to safety and a spectator received a scalp wound. It was Aliy Reid who, working in the main garage at the time, first noticed the outbreak. , He gave the alarm and went back in order to save some of the cars.

The area covered by the fire was approximately 190 feet by 230 feet, n brick wall at the rear of the Cuba St. premises undoubtedly saving the large two-floor structures facing this highway and preventing a much more disastrous result. Thousands of feet of timber at t he rear of the Loan and Mercantile Agency’s premises also added fuel to the outbreak on the western side, but another brick wall, running parallel to Taonui Street, prevented a spread to the old Cosmopolitan Club building—now the Druids’ Hall.

At 9.40 there was an explosion which startled everybody in the locality, as one cylinder of the three used for acetone welding exploded with a roar. A spectator, who was close in to the seat of the fire, received a. scalp wound as the result of a window being shattered by Ihe blast.

Alterations to the rear workshops were being made by Ford Motors prior to the fire and only on -Wednesday the new tar-sealed Moor of the panelling room was under way.