NO ELECTRIC FAULT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 284, 21 February 1928, Page 16

NO ELECTRIC FAULT

TONSON GARLICK FIRE POWER BOARD REPORT A report was submitted by the chief engineer to the Auckland Electric Power Board yesterday afternoon on the recent Tonson Garlick fire* The engineer considered that Press reports of the fire had given the impression that faulty electrical equipment was responsible for the outbreak, but this was not the case. Although the fire had started in a corner near the switchboard, the inspection which was made in the company of the superintendent of the fire brigade entirely eliminated any possibility of electricity having been the cause. The recording charts at the Beresford Street sub-station showed that the first disturbance on the area was within 12 minutes of the alarm being given, when the heat in the vicinity of the switchboard would have been sufficient to destroy the insulation of the wiring. The charts would have disclosed anything likely to have caused a fired during the hours the ordinary loading was off.

The engineer stated that an atte pt had also been made to lay the blame for the outbreak on the small distribution fault which had occurred further along Karangahape Road at 7.25 a.m. With the board’s system of earthing, it was impossible for such a. fault to affect anything inside the consumer’s premises. The fault developed at 7.3 a.m.. and then cleared itself until 7.25 a.m.. over two hours after Tonson Garlick’s fire had been extinguished.