FIRE AT PETONE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 September 1941, Page 6

FIRE AT PETONE

LARGE MODERN FACTORY DESTROYED BRIGADE SET HEAVY TASK. BUILDING HEMMED IN BY HOUSES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Entailing a loss of about £60,000, including £20,000 worth of machinery and £35,000 worth of stock, a fire destroyed the premises at Petone of the Empire Printing and Box Manufacturing Company in the early hours of this morning. Enclosed in concrete walls and containing much glass in the roof, the factory was hemmed in by houses and gave the Fire Brigade a heavy task, made no easier by the nature of the stock. Huge stacks of cardboard, reaching almost to the roof, were alight, and it was almost impossible to reach the centres of these stacks with hoses. There was a danger, too, of men being injured by falling stacks, as they were > undermined with burning wax, of / which there were large stocks, and \ falling glass. » The origin of the fire is not known. Some of the employees were at work till 8.30 and everything was left in good order. The Superintendent of the Petone Fire Brigade passed at about 11 p.m., and there was then no sign of anything wrong. Thirty-seven women and 17 men are affected, and the company will be faced with great difficulty in replacing the damaged machinery.