SMALL FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 August 1940, Page 6

SMALL FIRE

CAUSES MIDNIGHT ALARM IN WELLINGTON. SURPRISING AMOUNT OF SMOKE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Dense clouds of acrid smoke, and a lurid glare over the centre of the city, gave the impression that a serious fire had broken out in Wellington at about a quarter to one o'clock this morning. Four machines from tlie Central Fire Station answered the alarm, but some difficulty was experienced in locating it.

From Ghuznee Street to the Town Hall, a pall of smoke hung on the still air: but though there were numbers of pedestrians and motorists calling “Fire" and searching for the seat of the conflagration, it was several minutes before tlie firemen located it in a tin shed off Sturdee Street, a narrow alley leading south from Dixon Street. There was a fine blaze for a few minutes, and a heavy column ol smoke, but a single hose sufficed to put out the fire in a few seconds. The shod appeared to he some sort of bottle dump or store attached to a brewery. It appeared that the amount of smoke was cut of all proportion to (he seriousness of the fire. The smoke was due to a quantity of sacking which was burning.