BEGINNING OF THE FIRE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2110, 30 March 1914, Page 6

BEGINNING OF THE FIRE.

THE FIRST ALARIJI.

lEiKnlrll MrLUolUn UllUlto.

1 ' HORROR AND CONFUSION,

:Tho fire was discovered in Benge and j Pratt's large general grocery and drap- ! Very store at 11.35 p.m. by Mrs.' Crab- , . I Hree, the wife of the licensee of the ProI ;vincial Hotel, which building is only [•■'. separated from the store by a right-of-L'/.way. Mrs. Crabtreo'at once gave the !■: alarm. Constable Mahoney was sent for, t. and he and ot!hers broke into the shop,

which .was then only filled with smoke

Incoming, it is said,.from the storeroom pi; at.--.the -rear of the grocery department. | : :-iiliose-wlio were first in got to work at tejijfce to remove the stock to the .main outside, and were soon joined by a h'r "willing band of lielpers, who were'doing ! i good work in the shop, whilst a contin-i'-'geut of workers.'got busy on the flames s .with a single firo hose, the property of f, tho Town Board. ' - ( .-''■■.' Whilst little impression could be made on the firo with the restricted means available, the band of workers in the shop shifted a good deal of the 'stock ■out on to the road and into Mr. Lay's shop opposite, '■and were still slaving : likel, Trojans to save goods from the '.'inaw of the flames -when " "

; A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION 'occurred, causing the building to col-: lapse liko a pack of cards, enveloping •iioarly all in the shop below v in an in-' i.'lfcrnd of blazing timber, and causing ';>a scene of indescribable horror and con- ; fusion. For a moment or two piercing !' ecreams rent . the air, chilling ;. the blood of-all who heard , them. . They ! v.-oro the despairing cries of the_ unfor- . tunates who had, without warning, literally been hurled to .their death. How «ach of the victims met with'his death ■will never'be known, for the explosion, heard as far away as Petone, ehattered ■the burning-building, and. the. point as r-tp' whether:. tlioVdeceasedj; persons :were' ■ -killed directly'by tho>effects of th£ explosion or were struck down and smoth■'.ered.'by the falling timbers; of the building can'never be accurately" determined. • : '-,'.' ''• ■■.;■;';..:.. FLYING DEBRIS. J V ; ;•;■■■' Those within the building were not the only ones to suffer. The explosion shot in, e^ery.direction, mostly pieces ''pi timber blown from tho burning build•'/ing. One of the • victims—Michael r'Tobhey—was standing at the end of tho ; -balcony, of < the hotel /assisting : tho licen'.see, Mr. Crabtree, to play a hose on to ,'the.side'waH of the hotel, when ho was ..violently hurled .-.right along the ■•'verandah, ami -'smashed against the rail: ■ Many ' others who were itanding about, the road and footpath xin-froiit were injured more or- less seri-j-'-ously,- and a great number, of people 1 'were knocked off their feet by the effect [of the-concussion, whicli shattered most [, 'of tho windows of tho business places | I'..and houses in tho immediate vicinity .of j; the burning''store....The plate-glass wins' (Umvs of a: shop immediately opposite I Messrs.. Bengo and...Pratt , 3 premises [ wore blown into splinters, only an inch for so of the glass remaining in tho .window frames. The front and side -, windows, of ; the Post Office two" .hundred. feet away were also • blown in, and even business places well dow'n tho street on the same side as tho burning building suffered through cpnI. cusssiori, windpw-panes being broken and articles knocked' over. One person' who I was in the vicinity stated that the ex- \ plosion had , all tho awesomo effect of a '."""Sharp earthquake, whilst its shattering j roar caused temporary deafness on tho f part of many of those within a hunf; dred yards of the occurrence. I A SCENE OF CHAOS. !■; tho explosion caused a scene of s'chnos." Somo of those who had susj tained minor injurios ran down'the road i yelling aloud in a state of temporary j dementia, others found themselves in a j dazed condition sprawling , on tho f-ground, and al] present were affected with the excitemont that is commonly associated- with such disasters. The work of removing .the goods was, of course, suddenly checked, the roof and |:-first floor having fallen into a blazing I. !■ ■ ' ' / L . ■■■-•■