GARAGE ABLAZE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 140, 13 June 1919, Page 5

GARAGE ABLAZE.

FIRE TN SYMONDS' STREET. £3000 DAMAGE IN FIERCE BURN. Fire swept the premises of Messrs. Merson Bros., locksmiths and motor cycle dealers, of 170, Upper Symonds. Street, last evening and in less than half an hour the motor department was wiped out and seven machines more or less destroyed. Damage was tentatively estimated" as being somewhere in the vicinity of £3000, made up of £2000 damage to stock and fittings and about £300 damage to building. Details of the damage, however, are in course of assessment, and as the engines of some of the cycles are not so extensively injured as might appear at first sight, the early estimate may he revised. The fire started shortly after five o'clock, and afforded excitement for crowds of people homeward bound. The premises of the firm consist of two distinct but adjoining shops, one devoted to I the general business and the other to the I motor trade. Work was proceeding as i usuai. and the employees were about the | premises, when a sudden blaze occurred lin the lower back room of the motor- | cycle department. Salvage operations were attempted, while other employees summoned the lire brigade, but within five minutes the inflammable contents of the room had given the fire a fierce hold, and further rescue work was out of the question. In the short space of time between the discovery of the blaze and tho giving of the alarm the fire had travelled to the garage, and the flames were licking round the front window. The fire lasted about half an hour, and from the time of the arrival of the brigade twenty minutes sufficed to get it in hand. In that period, however, it had burnt out the two lower rooms, swept up the staircase and gutted the upper back j room and an adjoining small room, and had done considerable damage to the upper front room. Fortunately the stout I brick wall separating the two departI ments completely protected the premises ! devoted to the general -business, and coni sequently the firm is able to continue operations. The elevated locale of the fire enabled the flare to be seen across the harbour and for miles around. * • The stock was insured with the Alliance Office and the building with, the ' Standard Insurance Company. . inquiries have so far failed to throw i any light upon the cause of the fire.