FIRE AT NEWTON.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 276, 28 November 1870, Page 2

FIRE AT NEWTON.

THREE DWELLING HOUSES DE-

STROYED

No little excitement was caused at noon, today, by the ringing out of the firebells, and soon the current of people set in towards Newton, where dense volumes of smoke indicated the site of the fire. The buildings consumed were situated in a street called Somerset Place, off Howe-street, and close beside the .Grammar School. The fire originated in an unoccupied cottage belonging to Mr. H. M. Shepherd, contractor, into which a Mrs. Tucker, occupier of house No. 3, was removing to-day, and preparatory to which she had placed some sulphur on a pan and setting it on fire, had left it in an upstairs bedroom for the purpose of expelling bugs. On returning she observed smoke issuing from the shingles, and had scarcely time to raise the alarm ere the flames burst forth. The fire quickly spread to the adjoining house, the property of, and occupied by, Mrs. McVay, and then to a third, the property of Miss Tottnrd, of Onehunga, and occupied by the Mrs. Tucker through whose misadventure the fire occurred. A fourth cottage, a little lower down the hill, and in the direction of the wind, had a very narrow escape, and doubtless owed its preservation to being enveloped in blankets and bags, and wetted with copious supplies of water. Mr. Inspector Broham and the police, and Mr. Asher and his firemeu were early on (he spot, but any attempt to save the three buildings would have been vain. All the furniture had been removed, and even the windows and doors from the doomed houses. Two of the buildings were insured— that in which the fire originated, for £50 in the Imperial, and a few months ago had been also insured in the New Zealand Insurance Company for a like amount,' but the policy had lapsed. The second house, owned by Mrs. McVay, was insured in the New Zealand Insurance Company for £100.