SERIOUS LOSS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 313, 29 August 1932, Page 6

SERIOUS LOSS

FIFTY TONS OF N.Z. HONEY DESTROYED BY FIRE. REPRESENTATIVES ACTION. A remarkable achievement on the part of the London representatives oi the Honey Producers' Board was carried out after fire destroyed 50 tons of packed honey at Messrs. C. and E. Morton's wharf. Within a few days after the fire bottling was again commenced. The section of Morton's wharf where the honey was packed was a wing of the building, and it was separated from tbe main building by an iron wall. It happened that all the bulk honey was inside the main building, and was protected from the flames by the iron wall. Perhaps it is fortunate that this honey is available at the present time, but if there had been any choice in the matter it would have been much more convenient to have lost the bulk and saved the packed honey, and the recently-installed packing plant. Some fifty tons of packed honey was destroyed, and with all th'e printed labels and advertising material. Apart from the building, the damage is estimated at between £10,000 and £11,000. Among the property destroyed were a number of automatic electrically-propelled figures which are a feature of the board's advertising, and which were just ready for distribution. They had been purchased from Germany— the only country which can. manufacture them — before the 15 per cent. duties were imposed. It will take three weeks before the printed material can be replaced. Limited stocks of packed honey were available in various parts of the country, and these were drawn on to supply the immediate needs of retailers. Now, with the temporary plant in operation, it is hoped that no damage will have been done to the goodwill of the produce, and that it will not be necessary to turn down any orders. It will be three months before the depot is re-erected and refitted. A Furious Fire. The fire broke out soon after 4 in the morning, and in a very short time the honey was blazing furiously, making a wall of fire on the water's edge. Firemen went from both sides of. the river, and two fire-floats were brought into use, one from as far away as Blackfriars. On the floats, on barges moored in in tba river, on the preGarious edges of walls, firemen formed a ring round the whole building, concentrating on preventing the fire spreading. A pierman on the West India Dock said that within a minute or two of the fire starting the whole of the wing was blazing. At the height of the blaze firemen were at every possible point pouring water on to the flaming honey. The roof crashed in, and as soon as thay could get n'ear enough the firemen, with gas masks and axes, broke down burning wooden beams. It was a thrilling sight for the first few hours before the firemen began to get ccntrol. So great was the heat that a safe in the depot was not able to protect its contents, and packing records covering many years were so scorched as to be unreadable.