FIRE IN AUCKLAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 113, 14 May 1914, Page 8

FIRE IN AUCKLAND

— GOVERNMENT HOUSE BADLY DAMAGED HALF THE BUILDING BEYOND REPAIR VICE-REGAL PARTY AS SALVORS. (IT TELEGRAPH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, This Day. A fire occurred at 9 o'clock this morning while the Governor and General Sir lan Hamilton were at breakfast. There was a Vice-Regal ball last night, of which the electric lighting was a feature, and it is supposed that the fire was caused by the fusion of electric wires. The alarm having been given, the brigade responded smartly. A detachment from H.M.S. Psyche under the commander also arrived early on the scene. The Earl of Liverpool, Sir lan Hamilton, and their staffs assisted in saving their personal effects, and removed some of the furniture. When the brigade arrived th» fire had a good hold, and had burned a hole in the wall immediately above the bed in which Sir lan Hamilton slept last night and through the floor in front of the fireplace in the same room. It had also burned -through the floor of the passage leading to the Governor's bedroom, and had attacked the roof of the building. Tho brigade got the fire under after it had spread to- several other rooms. The damage by fire and water is estimated at £6000. Quite half the building is beyond repair. General Hamilton's bed was partly burned. In the drawing room on the ground floor the weight of water carried away part of the ceiling. The Governor's room was flooded with water and the wallpapers torn away by the deluge of water. The fire did not make much of a spectacle, the only outward sign being dense clouds of smoke. 'General Hamilton was down late for inspection of the forts. Mr. N. A. Nathan has placed his residence adjacent to Government House at His Excellency's disposal. AFTER THE BALL DISCOVERY OF THE OUTBREAK. GOOD WORK BY~THE JBRIGADE. At the ball last night in honour of General Hamilton there were over four hundred guests. It ,was a brilliant affair, and terminated at 1 o'clock. It was something to be thankful for that the fire did not occur while the ball was in progress or later while the residents of Government House were in bed. The outbreak was discovered by a carpenter removing the verandah awn- 1 ings which had provided shelter for the dancers. Smoke was seen coming from an upstairs window. ' The Government House party were just about all down to breakfast, and the household was thrown ftito a state of confusion which, however, was only momentary, for the presence of mind displayed by the Governor, hia staff, and General Hamilton had a steadying influence. In quicker than it takes to record the official telephone conveyed the alarm to the City Fire Brigade, and a large Tbody of expeditious workers ..set about removing the contents of the building to the garden, paths, and lawns, j In a few minutes the brigade arrived in two motors. The firemen were confronted bY volumes of dense smoke and a small body of flame issuing from a second story window at the city end. While some firemen dashed upstairs, others got hoses to work from the outside, and their efforts were productiveof_ excellent results. In about fifteen minutes they had the fire fully in hand. Meanwhile, the house party had removed their personal effects. The large drawing >"oom on the ground floor was stripped of its contents, while the ceiling was burning briskly. The breakfast room was similarly cleared. The Governor's private room was relieved of valuables, and private papers, and from upstairs windows was a fusillade of articles, singly and in bundles, the pathways and lawns being strewn with piles of personal and household effects. ' [Government House, Auckland, stands in beautiful grounds, ten acres in extent, abutting on to Waterloo-quadrant, Symonds, and Princes streets, about ten minutes' walk from the General Post Office. It is a two-story wooden pile, erected when Auckland was the seat of Government. It contains thirty-five rooms, from some of which a very fine view of the waters of the - Waitemata and Rangitoto Islands are obtainable.]