WELLINGTON'S FIRES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 55, 6 March 1915, Page 11

WELLINGTON'S FIRES

I ♦ ' — ' — • DURING 75 YEARS RECORD OF BIG BLAZES FIGURES OF THE LOSSES. November 9, 1842—57 houses on the Beach. May 17, 1868-*-Commerciial Buildings, Lambton-quay. October 23, 1877— Small fire, Molesworth'fltreet; six lives lost. June 16, 1879— First Opera House fire, damage £100,000. May 9, 1884— St. John's Ohuroh, .Willis^ street. April 18, 1885— To Aro House. December 29, 1885— Fourteen, shops, warehouses, and dwellings, LambtOn'quay. February 26, 1887—Pana.ma-street block. March 29, 1887— Second Opera- House fire. April 28, 1887— Post Office and Custom' houee. October 8, 1890— Old Government Print* ing Office. November 28, 1898— St. Mary's Cathedral. December 9, 1898— Royal Oak Hotel destroyod; two lives lost. January 18, 1901— Wrigglesworth and Binns's photographic studio, Lamb-ton-quay* and Western Hotel, Willisstreet. May 30, 1901— Twenty-two residence* destroyed, Hawker-street. June 24, 1901— Terrace School. November 25, 1901— Oriental Hotel, Willis'street. November 16, 1902 — Nelson, Moate and Co.'s w&rehouse, Grey-street. March 24, 1902— \Kempthome, Presser, and Co.'s chemical warehouse. January 26, 1905— D.t.C. destroyed. March 26, 1905 — Berhampore School. October 22, 1906 — Great Lambton-quay fire. December 11, 1907— Parliament Build* ings. May 22, 1908 — Fire on present Post Office site. April 14, 1912— Third Officer M'Lean killed at Manners-street fire. August 7, 1912— Whitcombe and Tombs's printing and stationery warehouse destroyed. March 29, 1914— Upper Hutt fire; sevefl lives lost. Wellington from i the earliest days has been liable to partial destruction by fire. When the topographical conditions of the city are considered, one has reason to be surprised that the list of big fires is not much greater. The wind, the hills presenting difficulties in the way of an adequate high pressure water supply, and, in early day 6, the preponderance of wooden buildings — these things have made the fire fighter s task difficult. It is not easy to compile anything like & complete record of Ug fire* which occurred years ago. The memory of old settlers has to be relied aa, and however good the memories of th» pioneers may be, when it comes to datps and details accurate information is not easily obtained. The earliest fire of any importance oo> curred on 9th November, 1842. Wel« lington citizens unknowingly and unwillingly celebrated the birth of King Edward VII. with a bonfire of 57 houses, extending from Barrett's Hotel along the heach to Windy Point or Clay Hill, now Stewart Dawson's corner. The damage waa estimated at £16,000, for only 20 of the buildings were of wood, tfce rest being raupo. „ The bold bluff tit Clay Hill prevented the fire from spreading to the commercial buildings, and thy outbreak, as it cleared the ground for a better style of residence, was in a. way beneficial. ■ For aver twenty years, until 17th May, 1868, there was no serious conflagration. Then the Beach, which had become Lambton-quay, and a shopping quarter, was swept by a disastrous fire which destroyed Mundle's ' South Sea Hotel, Kane's drapery establishment, James's furniture factory, Carman's butcher's shop, Armstrong's saddlery shop, Moffit's dental rooms, Cohen's tobacconist's premises, Browne's grocery store, and Webb's furniture warehouse. THE OPERA HOUSE FIRE, In the following year, on 16th June, occurred one of the most disastrous fires ever known here. It is known as the first Opera House fire. It swept away the Opera House, the Working Men's Club, the Wesleyan Chapel on the opposite side of the street, the Wesleyah schoolroom fronting Dixon-street, the branch office of the Bank of New Zealand on Cuba-street corner, the Nag's Head Inn facing Cuba-street, the Royal Oak Hotel, and the Market Hall. These were the principal buildings destroyed. Altogether an area of ten_ acres was cleared, and nothing but ruins remained along the entire frontage from Man-ners-street to Dixon-street. The losses by the fire amounted to £100,000. Te Aro House drapery establishment was burnt to the ground on 18th April, 1885, the loss involved being about £40,000. On 29th December, 1885, t the area, of Lambton-quay swept by tire in 1868 suffered again, fourteen shops, warehouses, and dwellings being destroyed. A BAD "YEAR, The Panama-street fire, which cleared the .block bounded by Lambton-quay, Peatherston, Panama., and Brandon Streets, broke out on 26th February, 1887, and did £100,000 worth of damage., On 29th March of the same year the second Opera House fire occurred, and just a month later, 28th April, the Post Office and Customhouse wete destroyed. Another Government building, the old Printihg Office, on /the Hotel Cecil site, went in smoke, with many valuable lithographic stones, on Bth October, 1890. The 9th December, 1898, was notable for the destruction of the second Royal Oak Hotel. The material loss was not great, but the fire caused a great sensation from the fact that two boarders at the hotel lost their lives, As will be noticed, 1887 was a bad yea? for big fires. That seema to be the way with the flames, and more than one brigade officer has had a long record of sucesaful fire-fighting spoilt by a few disastrous months. It is not often his fault that the flames have their way, but someone has to be blamed, and the public does not think deeply. The year 1901 was one such bad year.. There Were four big fires, the most notable being the residential fire on Mount Victoria slopes. On 30th May, 1901, twenty-two residences in Hawker, Shannon, and Moeller streets Were totally destroyed. Three others were badly damaged. A high wind and insufficient witer supply helped to swell the volume of Wellington* greatest residential fire. SPECTACULAR FIRE. The most spectacular fire ever seen here was that which destroyed Kempthorne, Prosser's chemical warehouse on 24th March, 1904. The explosions of gas cylinders and various chemicals were heard all over the city, while tho fury of the flame* was such as has not been seen here at any other time. The D.I.C. fire, on 26th January, 1905, involved almost £100,000. Within comparatively recent time*, however, the biggest blaze wa4 that which swept Lambton-quay. Grey and Featherstc-n streets on 22nd October, 1906. The triangular block which these *t,i'eei> enclose was almost completely cleared, while big buildings On the Other 4kle of the Qu&y sere abo gutted, The

buildings destroyed included the follow ing : — Wellington Auctioneering Com* pany's premises, Mifee Roach's fruit shop. Trocadero private hotel. Commercial Hotel, Cohan's fancy goods shop, Levi's optician's establishment, Shields'* tailor's shop, Whitcombe and Tombs's printing and stationery warehouse, the newlyerected Bank of New South Wales, the Union Bank of Australia, Castendyk and Focke's warehouse, Strand Cafe, Alii' ance Insurance Company's premises, A, and T. Bate's offices, Wellington Trust and Loan building, and the New Zealand Insurance Company's building. The damage was estimated at the time at corteiderably over £76,000, and the fire is notable front the fact that it Carried away buildings of modern structure and supposedly, enormous fire-resisting qualities. Parliament Buildings were partially destroyed on 11th December of the following year. On 22nd May, 1908, a fire partially cleared the site of the present new Post Office, and the Post Office itself was threatened. Whitcombe and Tombs's premises on Lambtoh-quay were destroyed a, second time on 7th August, 1912. IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Although there have been numerous hotel fires, outbie&ks in public halls, schools, churches, and other places where people congregate have be^n few, and none that has occurred has been attended by fatalities. The Opera House, as stat* cd. has beeii destroyed twice, and other smaller halls have gone also. St. John* | Presbyterian Church Was destroyed oil 9th May, 1884, when the tall spire fell right across Dixon-street. St. Mary'ft Roman Catholic Cathedral was burnt to the ground On 28th November, 1898. The old Wesleyan Chapel went in the firet Opera House fire. Two notable school fires are that at the Terrace, in 1901, and that at Berhampore, in 1905. FIRE FATALITIES. Where it might have been anticipated that, except by /good fortune, there would have been loss of life, there has been no loss. Yet the fire has claimed, its victims. An extremely sad case was\ that of a fire in a mall house in Moles-worth-street on 23rd October, 1877. The occupants of the dwelling were a widow, Mrs. W. Johnson, and her five children. They all perished in the flames. The loss 6f two lives at the Royal Oak, in 1898, has been mentioned, and other fires involving the loss of one or two lives should be named. An unusual fatality was the electrocution of Third-officer M'Lean, afc a Manners-street fire on 14th April, 1912. The greatest loss of life resulted from the tipper Hutt fire and explosion, on 29th March, 1914. Seven men met their death through that unfortunate occurrence. OUT OF EVIL— IMPROVEMENTS. Though loss of life and property are deplored, yet, when the fire-swept area is ill-planned or insanitary and the buildings old, if there i» no loss of life the conflagration is Mot always an unmixed evil. The earliest big fire recorded \n the town certainly made the erection of better buildings possible, and many improvements in the style of our buildings have been brought into being after fires which have been lamented at the time as great calamities. Writing at this time, it is almost impossible to deI tail these improvements, but one ha« only to look at the Grey-street, Lamb-ton-quay, Featheraton-atreet block to notice that fire i» the forerunner of better building «tyk& Wooden buildings within the business area for a long time constituted a danger to the city, but these are now almost entirely superseded. It may be noted here that one has only to read the accounts of early fires, Or even those of later date, to understand what a problem the water supply has been to the city. In the early days unless a fire broke out near the waterfront the only available water supplies were from wells. Often these would be pumped dry before an outbreak was under control, and the brigadesmen, volunteers, courageous but ill-equipped in those times, had to stand by and see the flames do their work. Even when a regular supply of water was laid on for the fire-fighters, it often proved unreliable, and it will be found that the most destructive fires known here have been attended by a break in the water main or the failure of tho &uppiy fl'om some othieiY tmexpected cause. Now we have an adequate water service and modern fire-fighting equip* ment. We have also more buildings of great fire-resieting qualities. Yet even ferro-concrete structures are not fireproof, and when they are once in tho hold of the flames they are more difficult to deal with than the old wooden buildings. Once the fire becomes fierce the concrete casing of the steel beams, with water playing tipon it, falls away like sand. The steel, exposed to the full heat, warps and' twists and pulls down the walls that it is intended to support. Thos it is that after fire has swept through a ferro-concrete area- not even, building shells remain standing. All that is left is a mass of twisted steel and broken concrete walls.