FIRES.

Taihape Daily Times, 6 April 1918, Page 5

FIRES.

FIRE AT RANGATAUA.' BENNETT AND PUNCH'S MILL DESTROYED. Last night, at about 12.30, Messrs Bennett and Punch's sawmill at Rangataua was totally destroyed by fire. From what can be gathered the manager went through the mill at midnight, when everything apparently was all right. Within half an hour the building was on lire, which secured such a hold that, in spite of all fire-fighting efforts, the mill was a mass of flames resulting in its total destruction. Fortunately there was no wind blowing, and the stocks of timber in the yards were saved. The destruction of the mill is a piece of particularly hard luck, as it was only by the most strenuous endeavours that it was saved from the fire which swept the district recently. The mill was the second largest in the disI trict, and it's destruction will further I accentuate the timber shortage now so acute owing to the loss of.'other mills. Some 26 men will be idle as a result of, the fire.