FIERCE BLAZE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1938, Page 7

FIERCE BLAZE

AUCKLAND CITY BUILDING DESTROYED GALLANT BUT VAIN EFFORTS BY BRIGADES. DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £lOO,OOO. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day. One of the fiercest fires seen in Auckland for some years broke out shortly after ten last night, defied the efforts of six brigades and swept through a large four-storeyed brick building in Kitchener Street which was used by several - business firms. Smoke was still rising when people went to work this morning. The building and its equipment, belonging to the following five companies, were completely destroyed:— D.S.C. and Cousins, Ltd., motor body builders; Walter Long, engineer; The New Case and Box Company, Ltd.; The Dominion Wood Wool Company; Mervyn Abel, steel pulley manufacturer.

It is believed that the fire broke out in the top storey, occupied by D.S.C. and Cousins, Ltd. Spreading rapidly through stocks of inflammable materials, the blaze burst through the roof and soared to a height of fifty feet above. The building was surmounted by a cloud of black smoke and myriad sparks swirling even higher. The flames ate their way through brick, metal and wood, reducing the building to a shell. The top storey was blazing fiercely from end to end when a call was sent from a street box to the brigade. Six fire engines, with sirens screaming, raced through the city and private cars rushed reserve firemen to the scene. People came from all parts of the city and Albert Park provided a fine, natural grandstand, the onlookers being able to look down from the hillside into the inferno only a lew yards away in the narrow street below.

The firemen played six leads of hose into the building without apparent effect. A wall fronting the street showed signs of toppling. . The firemen worked on bravely in a desperate effort to master the flames, but t had an obviously hopless task. From a wooden outdoor stairway, two firemen played water into the heart of the inferno, braving falling timbers from the roof. A wooden ramp leading from Bank Street into one of the higher floors blazed fiercely. Firemen attacked the building from all four sides, and by means of ladders mounted themselves no adjacent roof-tops. The damage is estimated to be in the vicinity of £lOO,OOO.