FIRE MANIAC AT WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 721, 22 July 1929, Page 1

FIRE MANIAC AT WORK

£ ~ • -v. Christchurch

INCENDIARIST’S determination cm; ISTCTIURCH, Today. DAMAGE estimated at £IO,OOO was done late last night wLen the bulk store of J. M. Ileywood. Ltd., Dundas Street, was damaged by a fire outbreak believed to have been the work of a fire maniac who is at large in the city. A padlock was missing from the front door, the building being open. Earlier in the evening slight damage was done to the sample rooms of Ambler and Company in Hereford Place by the ineendiarist, who smashed a glass panel in the door and set fire to a cloth covering some goods.

Heywood's building was full of furniture in cases, tho property of clients ~£ the company. This had apparently been deliberately ignited, and the dry timber of the cases and the furniture burnt furiously. When the head storeman left the premises at noon on Saturday the building was safe and was carefully locked up. The outbreak was discovered at 11.22 last night. With a constable only ten yards away, the ineendiarist set fire, about fight o’clock, to the sample rooms of Vnibier and Co., nexi to the garage of R. C. Dobson, which twice previously has been set alight. Slight damage was done before the fire was detected. A glass panel in the door had been smashed. Stuffed into this gap was a. white motoring dustcoat, which is now in the possession of the police. It Is probable that the incendiarist used the coat to cover his hand when he smashed the glass in the door. He apparently put a light to the doth dust-cover which had been laid over the goods. This cover was burnt :.nd the goods which were underneath •were badly charred. Another sensational incident during the week-end was the attempt, early on Sunday morning, to enter the shop of Hammond and Turner, Ltd., premises in which Mr. E. Hammond was seriously wounded by a burglar on

Tuesday night. A heavy glass panel was smashed in the front door, but the burglar was unable to manipulate the locks and could not gain admittance. By a similar method, a self-help grocery shop in Lincoln Road was entered about the same time. Nothing was stolen.

FIVE FIRES IN FORTNIGHT

POLICE KEEP CLOSE WATCH SEARCH FOR INCENDIARIST Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, Today. Last night’s fires have seriously perturbed the police and fire brigade officers, as Heywoods was the fifth of a series of suspicious fires inside a fortnight. The opinion is held among responsible officers that there is someone with a mania for causing fires in the city. Last night both city and suburban police were specially warned to be on the look-out for fires, and to take special note of anything of a suspicious nature. The fire which occurred on Sunday, July 13, destroying £4,000 worth of stock at Bing Harris Company’s warehouse, is now believed to be also the work of an ineendiarist.