Timber Yard Fires

Events > Timber Yard Fires

Among the fire hazards of the peninsula, timber was a soft target. To receive logs, timber firms clustered near Blackwattle Bay, and that compounded the risk. In April 1902, flames were seen in the engine room of Wallis and Sons' Cedar Mills. The blaze spread to several firms including a furniture factory, a broom factory and another timber firm. All 12 fire stations sent men and engines, and volunteers helped out: nine engines, 91 permanent and 64 volunteer firemen were at work, but the whole block between Gipps, Miller, Jones and Crown streets burned out in an hour (Sydney Mail, 19 April 1902). All had taken the precaution of insuring their buildings and stock.

In 1907 fire destroyed the remises of Austral Timber, one of several timber forms on Abattoir Road (now Bank Street). Two years later fire broke out at weatherboard premises at Alma-street, occupied by Sanders and Company, carriers. The Metropolitan Fire Brigade arrived, followed by volunteer companies, to find a ferocious fire centred on a loft stored with fodder. The main building, was destroyed but men sleeping in a nearby house were rescued - and so were several horses (Evening News, 21 August 1909).

Fire was also an opportunity for the unscrupulous. In 1892, Alexander Ogden’s timber yard caught fire. Ogden was insured but Henry Gleeson saw this as a blackmail opportunity and told Ogden: “I hold certain information which will get you and M’Kenzie into gaol. It is worth £300 to the insurance offices, but if you give me £150 I will shut my mouth and go away.” Ogden called his bluff and Gleeson was charged (Australian Star, 16 June 1892).

And in 1916 police reported six fires, and suspected “an organised gang of incendiaries” (Sun, 11 September 1916). Each began with cotton waste doused in a chemical, and they were extinguished before the fire took hold. Two of the fires affected Saxton and Binns' timber yards.

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