BIG CITY FIRE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 32, 1 November 1933, Page 10

BIG CITY FIRE

Christchurch Blaze FOUR-STORY BUILDING Total Destruction Likely By Telegraph.—Press Association. Cliristehurcli, October 31. Fire broke out late to-night in a fourstory building in Hereford Street, in the heart of the city. The building was occupied by 35 tenants, the chief among them being Chandler and Co., advertising agents, and Weston Bros., leather merchants. The owners are Mac Gibbons Buildings, Ltd. The alarm was received by the brigade at 10.50, and when it arrived at the fire a . few moments later the top floor of the building was ablaze, and it was at once apparent that the brigade would not bo able to extinguish the flames easily or speedily. Indeed, against the efforts of the firemen, the flames spread rapidly at the back of the building, and the fire soon involved all floors, and the roof fell. At the front of the building firemen were able to keep a measure of control, and there the lower floors were not actually consumed. At a few minutes before midnight the fire was still burning strongly, and it seems inevitable that’ the whole building will be destroyed with all the contents. The building is of brick and concrete, with wooden floors. ' It was recently re-roofed with wood and iron. It occupies the whole space between the seven-storied New. Zealand Express Company’s premises and the new T. and G. insurance offices. At the back the building is of four stories, and at the front- one section is four and the other three stories.