SYDNEY’S GREAT FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1921, Page 6

SYDNEY’S GREAT FIRE.

A FIERCE CONFLAGRATION. EYE-WITNESS’ IMPRESSIONS. I AN EXPLOSION AVERTED. Further details of the disastrous fire in Sydney on December 13, when the Pastoral Finance Association's building, for wery many years one of the great landmarks overlooking the harbor at Kirribilli, was totally destroyed came to hand by mail recently. A vivid impression of the great conflagration is given in a Sydney paper by “a resident opposite,” who says:— At 5 o’clock yesterday morning a wakeful mother in one of the flats near the P.F.A. block of buildings at Kirribilli Point smelt burning fat, and wondered who could be spoiling good food at that hour. At half-past 6 it was evident that something very serious was the matter. At 7 o’clock the smell of burning became so oppressive that heads were put out of windows thrown up in the beginnings of panic, and at a quarter-past 7 the cause was apparent to everybody. The main roofs of the “P.F.A.” on the Campbell Street frontage were seen to be ablaze, and soon the heat became intense, and at last overpowering anywhere near the great building. As one watched the flames mounting and passing from roof to roof of the upper floors, where so much wool was stored, there was a feeling of utter helplessness. Fire as an element under such conditions was seen to be as much master of the situation as wind and rain during the gale of July last, when all the exposed parts of Sydney at midnight seemed to be alive with the forces of dectruc-

For an hour the fire took charge without a word from anybody, and without the help of a draught from any quarter. Had a strong wind blown, nothing could have saved the buildings on Kirribilli Point, for a forced draught would have been created that soon must have made the contents of the P.F.A. buildings incandescent. Thirty thousand bales of wool,.most of it in the grease, would have burned with such a fierce flame that everything round about must have, gone. But the danger realised by some of the informed lay in the ammonia plant of the establishment, which kept the freezing chambers of the P.F.A. under constant thermic control. Ammonia gas under pressure is like steam —a fine servant, but a bad master, and had the blue jackets not carried the ammonia containers out into Carabella Street, and then kept them cool by playing hose upon them, there would have been an explosion to remember. BLUEJACKETS ASSIST? As the fire became an urgent signal to all Sydney that half Kirribilli might soon be alight, parties of seamen left the cruisers Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, and the fire steamer from Garden Island soon arrived in front of Admiralty House, only to find its hose too short for any effective play. But this difficulty was met as the various parties from the cruisers added their lengths; and streams, of water were not long in making themselves seen, if not felt, on the sides and front of the block, which was fast getting alight. A party with guncotton and long lengths* of fuse appeared on the scene, and it was interesting to hear the men discussing the possibilities of the situation—mostly in a cynical vein. They were to blow up something and block the fire, and were they to begin with Admiralty House? Cynicism indeed, was the natural tendency as one looked at the show, passing from Campbell and Carabella Streets through Admiralty House grounds to the waterfront. The walls had begun to fall in and out. Some of the brickwork crashed through the adjoining' buildings, but fortunately a good deal fell inward at critcial points. A BLAZING INFERNO. It was just at the great chimney stack that the worst of the morning’s play, by • a fire fiend uncontrolled, could be seen and felt. Underneath lay the boilers and machinery plant, and it seemed as if the devil were concentrating upon that point to do his worst. The walls on each side were tottering or had fallen, but the chimney held up a considerable breadth, which nevertheless crumbled and cracked in the intense heat. All that the hoses could do was to play upon adjoining roofs still unburned, in the effort to prevent ignition; but it was apparently so much child’s play. A little wind would rout the human forces, which were so puny beside the volcano on the other side of the walls. In the blazing buildings roof after roof had fallen in, and the floors had collapsed, so that piles of burning wool lay in a gigantic mass of concentrated fire on the level of those in charge of the playing jets beyond. COLLAPSE OF THE WALLS. At nine o’clock exactly, the front of the P.F.A. buildings facing the water fell out, and the heart of the fire could be seec. About half an hour before the front on Campbell Street had also fallen out, blocking the road and setting the trees and houses on the opposite side smouldering. Residents in the flats immediately about were told to pack up and be ready to flit at a moment’s notice. Meanwhile the wooden house of the manager of the P.F.A. had gone through the whole gamut of assurances of hopeless peril and final salvation. Again and again the shingle rodf began to smoke, but the water-power in Campbell Street kept the fire down. Helping hands soon brought the furniture out to pile it in Admiralty House grounds; and apprehension did not diminish in scores of adjacent homes until the dense smoke caused by increased water streams upon the blazing interior so near showed that the worst was over. “UTTER HELPLESSNESS.” But always it was the sense of utter helplessness everywhere that held one spellbound. On. Kirribilli Point itself there was plenty of water at first under good pressure, but quite evidently it was impossible to make effective use of it as far as the fire itself was concerned. One small engine, supplemented later by another, for hours seemed to be man’s mockery of the situation ; and yet the first engine saved the man; ger’s house, and a great deal besides in consequence. On the waterfront the . Sydney engines on one of the Sydney Ferry I Company’ traffic steamers pumped up the harbor waters, and , did good service, but

everything that was concentrated on back and front did no more than emphasise the immense power for destruction at work out of reach. It was the lack of wind that saved the clay for everybody; but with so much concentration of effort by firemen, sailors, and civilians, the fire was more like Germany’s invasion of Belgium than anything else —nothing could stop it.