CHAPTER VI
20
THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE AND THE CONTENTS OF GODOWNS.
41
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 Gov
ernment Chemist, to whom we are greatly indebted. This report is at-
tached as Appendix 3. Mr. Torry discusses very fully in paragraph 5
of his report various theories of origin, and indicates why these theo-
ries 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 approximately 30 tons of film scrap. We consider that the most ac-
ceptable 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 containers in a
hot climate. As Mr. Torry explained in his evidence, theories of spon-
taneous combustion must always be regarded with suspicion and only ac-
cepted in the last resort. His theory that the relative instability of
certain portions of the film was duc to some peculiar quality in the
camont used for splicing he admitted to be a novel one; he had never
heard of such an explanation before, It is for these reasons that we
regard his theory of origin only as the "most acceptable", and we have
not been able in our minds to rule out conclusively some other explana-
tion why the film should have caught fire.
45.
We heard a considerable volume of evidence on the subject of a
certain type of Caustic Soda which was stored in Godown No. 5. Eight
drums of this material were found to contain as an impurity metallic
sodium, which inflames violently on contact with water. This material
is therefore considerably more dangerous to handle than ordinary Caus-
tic Soda. We heard evidence that on the night of 20th September, some
drums of Caustic Soda were moved out of the Wing On Godown No. 1 to a
lighter, and during the course of removal operations a small fire took
place. It is clear that this consignment too must have contained