FIRE IN THE CITY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 148, 19 December 1907, Page 2

FIRE IN THE CITY.

The Fire Brigade had a difficult fire to contend with early this morning, when at 2.20 a call was received lo Old Customhouse-street. The outbreak was in tho baby-carriage factory of Messrs. Edwin-Arnold and Sons, but the cause is nob quite clear. The tire scemn to have started on tho side of tho building, on the upper floor — occupied entirely by Arnold and Sons — next to the Phoenix foundry. The only partition between the factory and tho foundry is a sheet of galvanised iron and matchboarding. It was at this spot that tho fire -was fiercest, and tho , flames then spread rapidly to the roof, whero some hundreds of rubber-tyred go-cart wheels were suspended. These offered very inflammable material, for the wheels aro now lying whwo they fell, piled up in hoaps, black, twisted, and stripped of every particle of rubber. Slacks of wiro mattress frames, and finished mattresses were consumed or rendered useless, and .bundles of wooden parts for carriages and go-carts were reduced to charcoal. A largo quantity of tools were also lost, together with much unfinished material used in tho business. Tho factory was electrically lighted ; there was no firo used in tho business, no glue pots kept on gas jets, and no smoking was permitted on the premises. Mr. Arnold, junr., is unable to assign any cause for the outbreak. The insuranco on the plant and stock docs uot exceed £200, and the Slate Fire Office parries the risk. Tho loss, however, is expected to exceed £750, so far as Arnold and Sous are concerned. Mi*. F. J. W. Fear, bicycle and sewing machine- importer, used the ground floor of the building as a bulk store, and here tho damage by water is considerable, so far as can at present be ascertained ; but tho firo was confined entirely to the first floor. Mr. Fear's insurance amounts to £250 in the New Zealand Firo Insurance Company. The building is owned by Mr. D. Robertson, who rooontly acquired it from the Heath Estate. Mr. Robertson being absent from Wellington it could not be learned whether any insurances have been effected upon the building sinco, it came into his possession. The i lessee is Mr. Fear, who sublets to Messrs. Arnold. The latter have been in occupation for twenty years. The premises arc in tho heart of an ! aggregation of wooden and sheet-iron covered buildings, and the brick buildings close to it i are comparatively old. A strong northerly wind was blowing at the iime the brigade arrived, taking the flames towards Manners-street. Fortunately a fairly largo open space intervenes between a row of old buildings in Manners-street beginning from the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel. It is a most difficult area for a brigade to workin, with narrow rights of way, inflammable gooda in store, and th& generally flimsy eharaoter of the buildings. The brigade report shows that the call was received at 2.20 a.m. from the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel street alarm. Tho fire was entirely extinguished' in less than three-quarters of an hour, and was well under control in twenty minutes after the brigade had got to work.