FIRE IN HASTINGS HOTEL

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28887, 6 May 1959, Page 12

FIRE IN HASTINGS HOTEL

Repairs Expected To

Cost £4OOO

(New Zealand Press Association)

HASTINGS. May 5.

Fire seriously damaged the upper storey of the Stortford Lodge Hotel, one of the leading hotels in Hastings, this morning. An unofficial estimate has put the cost of repairs about £4OOO. A bathroom was gutted, and two bedrooms and their’ contents were seriously damaged. Smoke which filled the top storey ruined linen, wallpapers, and ceilings. But for the prompt action of Mr Bert Packer, a barman with 29 years’ fire-fighting experience with the Feilding Fire Brigade, the fire might have burst through and swept along top-storey corridors. Mr Packer helped to hold the fire in check until the Hastings Fire Brigade arrived. The fire apparently began in the bedroom of the manager (Mr R. J. Havill). where a towel on a built-in wall heater caught fire. The room was severely damaged and furnishings were charred. Firemen quickly brought the fire under control, and confined damage in the rest of the building to that caused by smoke and heat.