LAUNCH DESTROYED BY EXPLOSION AND FIRE

Taupo Times, Volume V, Issue 209, 3 February 1956, Page 3

LAUNCH DESTROYED BY EXPLOSION AND FIRE

The launch Malua, owned :by Mr L. S. Richmond, of Hastings, was destroyed by fire ahout 2 a.m. on Saturday, January 28, following an explosion. The owner and Mr E. Mintof, of Tauranga and formerly of Hastings, escaped with burns. They had just put Mr R. Marsh, of Taumarunui, aboard his launch Hinemoana, and the explosion occurred when they pressed the self-starter to restart the motor. The cause is thought to have been a leak of rockgas. A fire extinguisher made no impression on the blaze. The occupants boarded the Hinemoana, and the blazing boat drifted down the Waikato River and burned to the water's edge against the safety cable above the control gates dam. It then sank. . The Taupo Fire Brigade aiiswered the alarm but it was not possible ti do inore than watch against a possible scrub fire on the river bank adjacent to the blazing hull. A crowd quickly gathered in the vicinity of the Control Gates Dam, and for a time motor vehicles were parked along the roadside from the dam back to the Tongariro Street junction.