BIG BLAZE IN CITY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 40, 17 February 1931, Page 11

BIG BLAZE IN CITY

OLD WINDMILL DAMAGED

' >- Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, 16th. Feb. The largest fire in Auckland for many years swept a block of four buildings running from Federal street on the east to Hobson street on tho west. The destroyed premises are those of Modern Shoes, Ltd. (incorporating Northern Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Co., Ltd.), Licheustein, Arnoldson, and Co., gum merchants, Warren Engineering Co., Ltd., mechanical and general engineers, and Cairns and Woodward, tent and sail makers. Tho fire broke out in the premises of Modern Shoes, Ltd., but. unfortunately the brigade at the time was already struggling with a fire at Partington's flourmill in Symonds street, and so the force was divided. For a time it seemed that tho outbreak might be confined to the building in which it started, but this was not_ to be. The blaze was under control in front, but at the rear the flames spread to the four-story building of Lichenstein, Arnoldson, and Co., and this was quickly ablaze from end to end, with frequent explosions, and soon the roof fell_ in, and while flames were rising high into the air a large section of wall on the southern side fell upon Cairns and Woodward's place. Meantime the premises of the Warren Engineering Co., on the northern side, had also got alight. ■ The brigade toiled ceaselessly, and at length got the upper hand of the conflagration in both directions. The fire in Symonds street meanwhile had damaged one of the most notable landmarks in New Zealand, the Old Windmill, one of the first objects on which the eyes of travellers arriving by sea used to, and still, fall, and always a subject of remark and explanation. This fire originated in a wooden garage and spread to the interior of the mill, and for two hours leads of water were trained on this to save the stores and a large quantity of wheat held for milling. The1 windmill in recent years has displayed only two of the four sails it originally boasted, and these sails suffered, the flames spreading to and partly consuming them. On neither of tho fires were insurance amounts available to-night.