DESTRUCTIVE FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1940, Page 7

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE

FACTORY DESTROYED BLAZE AT LOWER HUTT. LOSS ESTIMATED AT £70,000. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Buildings, stock and plant worth £70,000 were destroyed last night, when fire gutted the factory of New Zealand Slippers, Limited, at Railway Avenue, Lower Hutt. The two engines of the Lower Hutt Fire Brigade were powerless to quell the blaze, watched by some thousands of people. The destruction of the factory will throw 320 men and women out of work.

The factory was a single-story building of steel-and-brick reinforced construction; it was the first building in New Zealand of its particular kind of earthquake-proof construction. One wing, comprising the employees’ dining and social rooms, was of two stories. There was a self-contained concrete compartment for storage of explosive materials. The building covered a full acre. They were only 3J years old. . ~ The contents were mainly felt, leather and similar materials, but there was also a quantity of explosive and inflammable materials, cellulose, glycerine and varnish and other compounds used in making the company’s products. The cause of the fire is still unknown. The assistant manager, Mr Kennedy, said he locked up the factory personally at 6 o’clock, and went through the buildings in darkness. There was then no sign of anything wrong; and he was sure he would have seen any flicker of light. He expressed amazement at the celerity with which the fire ran through the building though there was no wind, and the substances were not for the most part readily combustible. The managing-director of New Zealand Slippers, Ltd., Mr P. Edwards, estimated the Joss at about £70.000. represented in the total destruction ot building, plant and stocks of raw materials and goods in manufacture. He assessed the value of materials and stocks at £40.000. the building at £16,000. and the plant, which was all modern. at £14.000. He said the destruction of the plant was a heavy blow al a time when it was extremely difficult to replace it from England. The loss was fully covered by insurance.