COSTLY FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1938, Page 8

COSTLY FIRE

JOINERY FACTORY DESTROYED IN AUCKLAND WITH ADJOINING WORKSHOPS BRIGADE SET HOPELESS TASK (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. July 8. Auckland’s second major fire within two months completely destroyed the joinery factory and workshops of the Fletcher Construction Company, Ltd., in Nelson Street shortly after 8.30 o’clock tonight. A two-storied wooden building which housed a quantity of valuable machinery as well as joinery in various stages of completion was eaten through by the flames, and, although part of the walls remained standing, the interior was a mass of glowing timber and twisted roofingiron.

The fire brigadesmen had a hopeless task and did well to save the adjoining concrete building on the southern side and a wooden house on the northern side of the doomed factory. One of the brigadesmen, H. Flint, a trainee at the Hobsonville air base, who was taking a course of instruction with the fire brigade, received burns to one hand.

Prompt as was their response to an early alarm, the crews of three fire engines from the central station and one from the western districts had no prospect of preventing the onrush of the flames. Comparatively few signs of fire werd visible outside the building in the early stages, but the brigadesmen found a fierce blaze as soon as the doors were opened. The origin of the fire in unknown. It is believed to have begun on . the lower story, but the flames spread with such rapidity as to make it difficult to determine exactly where the outbreak originated. Sweeping through highly inflammable materials, the fire gained a hold throughout the entire building to burst through the roof with a roar, sending glowing pieces of wood and thousands of sparks swirling high into the air.