FIERCE BLAZE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26635, 4 December 1947, Page 6

FIERCE BLAZE

HEART OF CAPITAL THREAT TO SHOPPING AREA BRIGADE’S GOOD WORK PA. WELLINGTON, Dec. 3. Within minutes of catching alight at 4.15 p.m. to-day, the repair room and store on the first floor of the Para Rubber Company’s premises in Willis street was fiercely ablaze. Flames and smoke belched from the windows, and the pungent smell of burning rubber filled the air. The fire brigade was on the scene smartly, and did well to confine the blaze to one room.

This was a fire in the centre of the capital’s main shopping centre, and had the brigade been in any way tardy the chances are that the blaze would have swept a wide

area, causing tremendous damage.

The heat was intense, and skylight •windows in the vicinity burst with loud reports. The repair room is adjacent to a switchboard, on which a fuse blew out about two minutes before - the fire broke out.

The manager of the company, Mr G. D. Pattle, before the brigade arrived, rushed to fight the outbreak with a hand extinguisher, but the heat was too intense to allow him to approach closely. Mr Pattle could not give an estimate of the damage, but said it was considerable.

Water poured through the roof into the shop of W. H. Tisdall, Ltd., sports goods dealers, where the stocks were covered with tarpaulins.