FIERCE FIRE
IN AUCKLAND BUSINESS BUILDING BIG TASK FOR BRIGADES. SOME EXCITING RESCUES. IDy Telegraph—Press Association.) ‘AUCKLAND, This Day. One of the fiercest fires in the history of Auckland developed about 8.15 o’clock this morning in the large warehouse of John Burns & Co., Ltd., fronting Customs Street, and extending some distance along Commerce Street and through to Fort Street Lane. No sooner had a large staff taken up their usual positions throughout the three-storey building than men and women were seen emerging from the windows of the second and third storeys on to the roof and parapets, against a background of dense smoke, followed almost immediately by great volumes of flame. While some of the staff climbed around the parapets on to adjoining buildings, others were rescued by jumping from second-storey windows into a tarpaulin, which was held by firemen, on the roof of the Customs Street verandah. A middleaged woman on the second storey hesitated a long time, but eventually jumped into the tarpaulin. Still earlier. ladders had been rushed from neighbouring warehouses to rescue others from two sides of the building. Cheers greeted the rescue efforts, especially when a man on the top storey in Customs Street was brought down the telescopic ladder by firemen. The crowd of several thousands cheered to the echo. The city fire engines, which arrived first, were joined from time to lime by suburban engines, until the full fire-fighting force, including auxiliary firemen, was engaged in a tremendous battle against fierce flames. The heat was so great that at about 9.15 o'clock Nathan’s Buildings and the building of the Bond opposite, in Commerce Street, caught alight. Some of the firemen had to divert their efforts and these outbreaks were subdued without causing much damage. Meanwhile the main battle continued. the police moving the crowds further and further back from Burns's blazing building, wherein the crackle of what sounded like small arms ammunition was continually heard and at 9.45 o'clock several loud explosions rocked the tottering building, causing the firemen temporarily to recede. At 10.15 o'clock flames were still leaping high above the south-west corner of the building and several leads of hose were operating in Customs Street and Fort Street. The electric clock in the Customs Street frontage stopped at 8.30 o’clock.
DIFFICULT TASK
MAN BROUGHT DOWN FROM TOP FLOOR.
LADDERS TOO SHORT
AUCKLAND. This Day.
The most thrilling rescue, m view of thousands of onlookers, from the fire in the three-storey building of John Burns & Co., Ltd., was that of a man brought to safety last of all. Trapped on the top floor of the building, he first appeared at 'a window on the Customs Street frontage, and it was obvious that the flames gave him no chance of reaching the western side of the block, from which some members of the staff had been rescued. Heat drove him on to a window sill and an unsuccessful attempt was made to reach him ■ with a ladder from a verandah roof. By the time the brigadesmen had raised a telescopic ladder, the man was frequently hidden from view by dense smoke. The ladder failed by several feet to reach the window, and preparations were made on the varandah roof for him to make a long leap into a tarpaulin. For some minutes it appeared impossible that the man could be got down the ladder and spectators expected him to collapse from smoke and heat at any time. Eventually a second fireman climbed the ladder and joined his companion who was endeavouring to bring the man to safety. Acting under the directions of the firemen, the mail worked his way from the sill down the face of the building to the top of the ladder, where he was supported by the brigadesmen. As his feet reached the top rung and the onlookers realised that a tragedy had been averted, they burst into loud cheers. The man was helped down the ladder, and on reaching the verandah roof was in a state of collapse. It was some time before he reached the street. Then, with several others, he was taken away by ambulance.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1941, Page 6
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688FIERCE FIRE Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1941, Page 6
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