Duvauchelle Hall razed

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 3

Duvauchelle Hall razed

Brigadesmen fought yesterday morning to stop a fire spreading from the Duvauchelle Community Hall to part of a service station about six metres awaay. The hall was razed. Members of the Akaroa Volunteer Fire Brigade and passers-by rolled away about a dozen drums of oil which were stored near the hall, said an onlooker, Mr K. W. Adriaens. Water was played constantly on the walls of the station’s storage shed, which had become so hot that its paint blistered. Several cars and a boat also had to be moved because of the danger posed by the fire, which was fanned by a south-west wind.

A passer-by noticed the fire in the 70-year-old hall about 10.40 a.m., said the owner of Bay View Motors, Mr Ray Skinner. The Akaroa Volunteer Fire Brigade was called and arrived to find the timber and corrugated iron hall

well ablaze. The brigade had to use water from a creek because the tide was out.

“Our aim was to stop the fire spreading to the service station,” said the brigade’s deputy chief, Mr Murray Brown.

The brigade’s one engine was at the scene for about 2Vz hours but could not stop the hall from being razed.

Mr Brown said that he believed the cause of the fire was an electrical fault. Mr Skinner said that he* had lost several signs and part of a fence in the fire.

Equipment owned by community and sports clubs which used the Duvauchelle Hall was also destroyed. The value of the goods could not be determined last evening. The Akaroa County engineer, Mr K. A. Paulin, said that the hall had recently been renovated. Many groups in the county had used it as a meeting place.