NO WATER FOR FIRE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 14, 27 October 1934, Page 8

NO WATER FOR FIRE

EIGHTY HELPLESS MEN. CUTTING OF FINE MANSION. Sixty men from five fire brigades and 20 Aif Force men had to stand by while fire gutted Fring Hall, one of the show mansions of West Norfolk, a few> weeks ago. Only a few hundred gallons of water were available owing to drought. When the supply was exhausted the flro fighting had to stop. All the jewellery and silver were recovered and placed in a cell at the Dorking police station. So intense were the flames that by 4 a.m. only the walls were left standing and some of them were cracked. The roof and two wings had gone and the fine old mansion of about 60 rooms was little more than a blackened ruin. The hall is the home of the Hon. Somerset Arthur Maxwell, only son of Lord Farnham, the prospective Conservative candidate for King's Lynn division seat in the House of Commons. "Mr Maxwell, I believe, took ovejr the mansion about four months'ago," a resident said on the day of the fire > "but only returned to it yesterday to a party meeting promoted by Viscountess Downe at Hillingdon. He worked in his shirt sleeyes doing all he could to help the firemen. The main sources of water supply apparently were a well in the grounds and some storage tanks. Only a few hoses could be used." Mr Maxwell and his wife arrived from London about) an hour before the fire broke out. Most of the downstairs furniture and some from the bedrooms was saved. The spectacular blaze could be sees for many miles and the roads were full of motorists who had come to watch.