Smouldering Ruin On The Lodge Site

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 12

Smouldering Ruin On The Lodge Site

After a sudden flare-up yesterday morning—which was under control within an hour—all that remained of the Lodge Hotel, Hanmer Springs, was a smouldering ruin among the concrete walls.

Many residents turned out during the morning and work started on moving the dangerous rubble into safer places. During the morning roofing iron and charred timber crashed from the concrete walls to the ground, while a bulldozer worked in the area where the staff rooms had been.

The aftermath of the fire had a full impact on the residents and all seemed to agree that Hanmer Springs would never be the same without the Lodge “Those hotels they build today could never compare with the Lodge,” was a frequent comment. The firemen wfere called back to duty at 7.30 a.m. when the smouldering rubble in the kitchen area flared up again. In no time the flames were shooting well up the concrete walls. Again the frost hampered operations. A 14 degree frost had frozen the water hydrants and hose couplings and the steps leading to the kitchen were covered by a sheet of ice. Before they could get any water the firemen had to light fires under the hydrants and warm the couplings before they could join the hoses. Another problem faced them when they tried to reach the fire—carrying the hose up the ice-covered steps they slipped four times before reaching the top. Within an hour the blaze was well under control.

Iron Removed Throughout the morning men worked from ladders and with long steel pipes pushing down the many sheets of roofing iron which hung precariously over the steel joists and concrete walls of the main building. In the old wooden building nothing remained except two brick chimneys, the space heater and the remains of-the beer tank. A bulldozer was put to work and the smouldering rubble was cleared into heaps. Full holiday and an additional week’s pay were given to the staff by the management yesterday morning. Many of the employees left Hanmer Springs by the afternoon bus.

“It was a good place to work. The majority of us had been here a while, some four years, and we all were intending to stay,” said one man. Two staff members who will not leave Hanmer Springs are the hotel’s cats. They were found yesterday morning mewing in the smoking rubble of the staff quarters. Two girls carried them off to the local butcher’s shop for some meat and then started to look for a home for them,

Local residents showed their sorrow at the loss of their many friends from the staff of the Lodge. A weekly collection, which is held for the Queen Mary Hospital. was held for the staff instead yesterday. Temporary Bar

A bar will open at the Lodge this morning. Yesterday men under the supervision of the maintenance man at the hotel (Mr J. Bull) were removing many of the walls from the annex—the only part of the Lodge not destroyed by fire—to make room for the bar.

The Licensing Act requires service to be resumed within 24 hours.

The lease of the Lodge site has no building clause requiring the occupiers to build in order to retain the lease. Newer leases issued by the Lands and Survey Department often have building clauses.

The present lease will expire on June 30, 1960. It is for. 21 years and was issued on July i 1939.