- 1i-
—
more or less a foregone conclusion. In these circumstances his efforts were concen- trated firstly on to damping down the intensity of the flames by deliveries on the exterior walls and into the ground floor, and secondly to the prevention of the fire spreading to adjoining buildings. During the first two hours, there was little wind, but about 10 o'clock a vigorous east wind arose, and continued for the next four hours, gradually veering to the south. During these hours the danger to the Royal Inter Ocean Lines Buildings must have been very great, and it is to the credit of the Fire Brigade that the spread of fire in that direction was prevented.
Exhaustion of Firemen :
40. In the afternoon, when the relieving watch which had taken over at nine o'clock had been engaged for six or eight hours, some firemen began to show signs of exhaustion and about ten of them had to be taken to hospital. This particular watch was due to be relieved at 9 o'clock the following morning, but arrangements were made for them to be relieved instead at 10 o'clock p.m. by the watch which had commenced fire-fighting operations that morning. An offer of assistance by the Police Force in the afternoon was gratefully accepted by the Chief Officer, and from 4 o'clock p.m. onwards police in shifts of fifty were employed at four-hour intervals. On the follow- ing day, assistance was also rendered by the Boy Scouts. In a later stage of the report we have some observations to make on the watch system of the Fire Brigade in the light of experience gained at the Wing On Fire.
41. The exhaustion of certain of the firemen is no doubt partially attributable to the extremely unpleasant conditions under which the fire was fought. It rained intermittently throughout the whole operation, it was colder than usual for the time of the year and the Brigade was still in summer uniform. On the seafront adjacent to the main godown, the road which was being repaired, had been dug up to a depth of about two feet. The depression so formed rapidly filled up, and the kneeling firemen directing deliveries were thus up to their waists in water.
42. The fire was considered to be under control on 23rd September at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, though it had been more or less extinguished in the tenements and godown No. 5 sometime before this. The structure of these buildings was not seriously damaged, but the roof and upper floors of godown No. 2 had collapsed and cracks had appeared in the eastern wall by the afternoon of the 22nd. The building has sub- sequently been condemned as unsafe, and must be demolished.
stated:
43. A Police witness before the Commission referring to the Fire Brigade
"I never saw men work as hard as they worked. The conditions under which they worked were very unusual."
From the evidence we have heard, we are able and wish to endorse that tribute.
CHAPTER VI—THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE AND THE CONTENTS
OF GODOWNS.
Investigations of the Government Chemist:
44. A very competent and comprehensive report of his investigations into the origin of the fire was made by Mr. R. C. Terry, Assistant Government Chemist, to whom we are greatly indebted. This report is attached as Appendix 3. Mr. Terry discusses very fully in paragraph 5 of his report various theories of origin, and indicates why these theories were abandoned in favour of the theory of self-ignition of a part of the washed film scrap stored in Godown No. 5. The proximate cause of the Wing On Fire was undoubtedly the burning with explosive violence of approxi- mately 30 tons of film scrap. We consider that the most acceptable explanation of the ultimate cause is that advanced by Mr. Terry, that is to say, self-ignition of film containing a small proportion of unstable celluloid, produced by long storage in closed
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