STORY OF THE FIRE FROM THE FIRST ALARM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1914, Page 7

STORY OF THE FIRE FROM THE FIRST ALARM

NO DANGER ANTICIPATED THEN THE FATAL EXPLOSION. The origin both of the fire and of the subsequent explosion is enveloped in complete mystery at the present. Messrs. Bonge and Pratt, the proprietors of the store, left tho premises on Saturday night about half-past- nine after making the usual tour of inspection. About half-pasfc eleven Mrs. Crabtree, wife of the landlord of tho Provincial Hotel, which is situated on the Bection adjacent to that on which the store stood, observed emoke percolating through the roof of the store. She at once gave the alarm, and Constable Denis Mahoney, the local police officer, was at once summoned. Ho came and saw the position, and went away with Mr. R. G. Mabie, who had. just- arrived from town by the late train, to knock up the proprietors, Messrs. Benge and Pratt. When the party returned they found that a number of other residents had arrived on the scene, including a dozen railway men or so, who had come down from the station. GETTING OUT THE STOCK. Thero does not appear to have born instant recourse to the firo hose and the use of tho high pressure water supply with which t-bo township has lately been

equipped. There is no fire brigade nt the Upper Hutt, and all that M'tts available in the way of (ire-fighting apparatus was a hydrant and a hose- 150 ft long, belonging to tho Town Board. This was locked up, and when Mr. W. G. Goes, Town Board water inspector, came to get it he had to break open the gate with his helpers, including Messrs. A. Hunter and Smith, of the Government Laboratory, Benge, Miljigan, and others. This all took time, and in the meanwhile the fire was gath* ering strength. Constable Mahoney organised the spectators into a band of help-el's, to rescue the stock. About thirty were now on the spot, and all joined in the good work. The books were all saved and a quantity of the stock. There was absolutely no indication of any extraordinary danger. Tlie fire appears to hjue been' at this above and at the buck of tho shop pavt of the building. It was like any other fire- where property has to be saved. AT MIDNIGHT. • It was then midnight and the fire was making headaway. Fortunately for later developments it was a calm, warm night, with no wind to fan the flames. Ho far only those living in the immodjate vicinity and those whose duties, as at the railway station, kept them up nt so late an hour were about the place, with numbers gradually but slowly increasing. Had it been the previous night when there Were crowds at the picture show in town the subsequent calamity might have been far worse, for tlfere would then have been a throng of sightseers ill frontof the burning building and in line with the flying debris cf the explosion, which wrought such havoi\. "* The hose had not yet arrived, but the flames now licking about the ioof to the rear of the old store — a low building with a gable upper story — began to threaten the Provincial HoteJ alongside.. TJie proprietor, Mr.

Crabtree, was up on the verandah overlooking the fire with Mr. M. Toohey, who was playing a small garden hose on the roof of the burning building. The boarders in the hotel were up and preparing to get out with their belongings. Mr. Sanniel Hill, Government Valuer, was gathering his plans and papers from a parlour on the ground floor overlooking the alleyway between the store and the hotel. A small party of helpers was getting out Mr. Crabtree's motor-car and managed to drive it through into the street and out of the way. It is said another car was also run through the gauntlet of the alleyway just in time. WHERE THE MEN WERE. Mr. Herbert Benge, after assisting the volunteers with the removal of his safe from the back of the store, out into the street, had returned again, and was with his partner, Mr. Hclbert Pratt, at the back of the store again shifting stuff out of the bakehouse. Mr. Pratt, with a garden hose, was endeavouring to prevent the spread of the fire, which was now well going in the centre and real 1 of the building from spreading to the premises of Mr. Hazlewood, next ( door, and Mr. Edwards's stables. With them weie Mr. R.G. Mabie and others. Mr. James Comesky, the postmaster, with a laudable zeal to savo Government property, had gone into the little office of Mr. Edwards, the carrier, at the corner of Benqe and Pratt's building, and was trying to pull off the telephone and get it away. Constable Mahoney, with the volunteer bund, had got the books out of Edwards's, and were in the shop working hard to save everything that could be saved in time, for the hose was not yet ready. The fire had crept up from the back, and was now going strong up above in > the upper story. In the shop were, so' far as can be ascertained, R. F. Storey; Alan Anderson, George Taylor, William Flynn, Herbert Weaver, A. G. Collett, Thomas Costello, G. H. Lay, Everary Polling, Vigil M 'Govern, Charles Walters, _ Norman Williams, John Wesley Vivian, and Constable Mahoney. They were moving quickly about picking up goods and carrying them out or handing them to others, There was a constant stream of the workers moving n. and out of the building. Where each { one exactly was when the explosion took place is almost impossible to say. as most of them suffered so much by the shock that their recollection is far from clear of the actual occurrence. At all events there were about thirty people shortly after midnight actively engaged in salavago operations, and others lookon further away.