SMOKE AND FLAMES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26622, 19 November 1947, Page 4

SMOKE AND FLAMES

DRAMATIC SPECTACLE FROM THE AIR P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov, 18. The crew of the National Airways Corporation’s Dakota, which arrived in Christchurch shortly after 4.15 p.m., could see the pall of smoke from the fire about 30 miles away although visibility was by no means perfect. Ac the height of the fire it was estimated that smoke rose to between 4000 feet and 5000 feet. Some minutes before the aircraft reached the city it was apparent that the fire was an unusually large one and even at Harewood it was plain that the flames were more than 50 feet high and covered the whole roof. Several aircraft flew over the city after 4 p.m. . An instructor of the Canterbury Aero Club, who flew over the city, said this evening that the whole roof was a mass of flames and that the smoke clouds were higher than 4000 feet. He could see flames shooting out of the windows on the Cashel and Colombo street frontages and efforts of the firemen to prevent the spread of fire to adjacent buildings.