Fire destroys Balfour Hotel

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33538, 20 May 1974, Page 1

Fire destroys Balfour Hotel

Patrons of the Balfour Hotel, Southland, today will be drinking beer over a makeshift bar in the former premises of a Balfour motor firm. A fire destroyed the hotel early yesterday.

j The fire was noticed about 12.15 a.m. Four hours later, in spite ‘of the efforts of the Balfour, Lumsden, and Riversdale volunteer brigades, the hotel i was a smouldering ruin, the Press Association reports. The 84-year-old hotel was sold by its private owners only about eight weeks ago to the Dominion Breweries group. The hotel lessees of only a few weeks, Mr and Mrs A. Dean, were wakened by men outside who noticed the fire and threw stones on the roof. They grabbed their threei year-old son, Jason, and fled. : Nobody else was staying in • the hotel. Only some furniture from ;the bar and some spirits was ’saved. Mr and Mrs Dean lost all of their personal belongings, (escaping with only a pair of

I j trousers, a coat, and their might attire. The cause of the fire,. ■thought to have started in' J the hotel’s pool room, is not >' known. j AUCKLAND FIRE In Auckland yesterday a fierce blaze burnt through. ))part of a zinc foundry in ’! Hamer Street, causing several 1 thousand dollars worth of, ’ damage and bringing the fear ; of a big explosion. The fire, at Zinc Oxide, Ltd. < ’ was noticed soon after 9 a.m. ' Firemen took nearly two ' hours to bring it under con- ; trol. Huge oil installation plantsi j are only a few hundred yards) away from the foundry. j Choking zinc powder made ; the firemen’s work difficult. Part of the roof and sec--1 tions of the second floor of ,lthe old wooden building were f damaged.