OIL HEATER EXPLODES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 582, 10 August 1909, Page 4

OIL HEATER EXPLODES.

EGMONT HOTEL HAS' A NARROW escape. ' Tho Egmoiit Hotel, situated,at the corner;' of iCourtenay I'laco and. Lower 'i'artmaki Street, had-a-narrow escape-from destruction by fire last evening. • At about 7.30, p.m., the kerosene-boater, kept in tho tobacconist's shopon the CoUrtenay Place frontage of the hotel to temper the 'chill. 'evening,, air,..exploded, and 1 in; less tlmu minute the . entire shop was ablaao.' . Tho brigade, which; had, been summoned by, tho alarm at tho foot of, Tory. Street, arrive!)! at the sceno, and in: less thaii two minutes from .the time tho first .load',was brought into'action, had'the firo out. ' 1 ; Mr,- Walter B. Thompson, tobacconist and hairdresser, who, occupied the shop, informed : a Dominion reporter that ho was sitting behind the counter in - Uio . shop in oloso proximity. to tho .heater, when without any . warning it, , wont off . with a bang, j and a bolumn. .of i flamo, shot .coiling ihign. , . There wore; jthreo,, customer's 'undergoing,.! .trMtmcntf.'in\'tho. salpon' J dt tho offior. .s'ido. of -a. wooden partition] . They .out of the saloonVwith. great,expedition,; and thanks • to.tlio: partition he and his assistants were able to drag the' barbers' chairs into thestreet before tho room became too. hot for. tlicm. Tho stock a,nd Gttings in the shop wore-badlv burned, '.and the fittings m; tho saloon suffered a good deal' from peat/ and smoke.' Mr. Thompson, who' was on the', point of soiling out, , stated that his stock and fittings wore insured in the Royal Office for £125. ' - The walls of: tho building (which belongs to Messrs. Dwan Bros:) did not suffer to any serious oxtent. ,