FIRE ON STEAMER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 518, 22 November 1928, Page 1

FIRE ON STEAMER

OUTBREAK ON WOOLGAR ACT OF INCENDIARISM? Shortly after midnight last night an outbreak of fire occurred in the chart room of the steamer Woolgar at King’s Wharf. The fire began at the door. The wireless operator, whose room is adjacent to the chart room, noticed the glare through a port-hole. He immediately aroused the chief officer, Mr. J. R. Blythe, who arrived on the scene with a fire extinguisher. Captain J. McLeod, who had been awakened by the smell of smoke, rushed on to the bridge where he seized a bucket of water and mads for the chart room. The fire extinguisher had done its work, however, and the outbreak was put out in a few minutes. The bottom half of the door leading into the chart room was badly charred, while a setee and locker inside the room were also damaged. Beyond that and some damage to tho floor the contents of the room -scaped. No definite explanation for the outbreak 'can be given. It is thought that it was probably an act of incendiarism. While at sea the floors of the cabins are polished with crud** oil, so that a spark falling on tho rtoor may have been the cause of the I fire. The Woolgar is owned by the MelI bourne Steamship Company, and ar--1 rived at Auckland oh Sunday last i from Bunbury. via Newcastle, with a cargo of hardwood. She had almost j completed the discharge of the local j portion of her cargo and was to be ; dispatched from Auckland at about ; three o’clock this afternoon for Wal- ! kokopu and Napier to put out the rent aind ex.