HOSTEL ABLAZE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 10

HOSTEL ABLAZE

A WING DESTROYED

DAMAGE ABOUT £500

■ The .eastern wing of the tourist hostel at'the head-of Milford Sound was destroyed by • a -fire which broke out on Saturday : evening about 7.30 o'clock, owing •to a fault in the hot water system. This information has been received' by^the general manager of the New Zealand i Tourist and' Publicity Pepartmeht • (Mr. L. J. Schmitt). The darri'age'is.estirnated by an engineer of the Public Works Department at about ,£SOO. ' Though - there were the usual nurriber of: tourists at th c hostel for the' time;of year (the exact number has not .been : ascertained), none suffered loss.of belongings or injury.

j A!report,to;Mr. Schmitt by the manager of the hostel (Mr. C. Long) states that. the.roof-of the wing was very badly damaged,by fire, and a number ofjbedrooms were damaged by flames, smoke, arid-water. . The outbreak-of the fire was fortunately observed * almost at once by a number-of,'Pub)ic Works men engaged on the Milford! Track; who gave valuable assistance • and succeeded in saving nearly all the furniture from the wing and in putting out the fire. ' A Public Works engineer has been peht^to the hostel to. repair the building. He is being accompanied by Mr. C.H. Pickford, the district manager of .the :Department. There still remained plenty of accommodation unaffected'by.'the fire, said Mr. Schmitt today, and, as the damage done would be repaired as fast as possible, the number of touring parties intending to visit the hostel would not be affected 1 There-, were still six weeks of thfF season.