SPECTACULAR BLAZE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 96, 20 October 1937, Page 14

SPECTACULAR BLAZE

FIRE IN THE GLEN | j FAILURE OF HYDRANT ..... i LARGE HOUSE SUFFERS A spectacular fire burnt the top part of a large two-storey wooden house situated in the Glen, Kelburn, at 8.30 o'clock this morning, numbers of citybound pedestrians being attracted to the scene. Despite the endeavours of the firemen who arrived with two engines, the flames secured a strong hold on the upper floor, and the top rooms and their contents were almost completely destroyed. The house, situ-1 ated at 23 North Terrace, is owned and occupied by Mrs W S Austin. It is understood that. the house itself was covered by insurance, although the large amorn.t of personal belongings lost were not covered. It appears that the fire was first discovered in the ceiling of one of the! upstairs rooms which was only occasionally used and the flames gained a strong hold The tiled roof of the house quickly gave way in places, giving a clear upward draught for the flames, which spread with great rapidity. Some delay in the arrival of the brigade was caused through an inaccurate call being received at the station, the first engine going to Centra] Terrace, only to discover that the blaze was at North Terrace. On arrival the brigadesmen quickly realised they were faced with a formidable task, as flames were bursting through the windows and roof, and liad spread to most of the upper rooms. The house is situated some distance up the ramp leading to the steps running out of the Glen, and! this meant that long leads were necessary, in addition to which the hoses I had to be carried up a considerable bank before they could be brought into play. Leads were at once taken up, j and directed on the upper floors, firemen forcing their way up through the house. Most of the front portion of the roof had by this time given way, and. flames were bursting through the tiles. CASTING GIVES WAY. j After the brigadesmen had been at' work for about ten minutes an unfortunate accident occurred, a casting j in the ground portion of the main hydrant snapping, putting the hoses out of action Immediately the hydrant j was transferred to another fire-plug further up the road, but this meant running out more hose, and valuable minutes were lost. The flames meanwhile made headway, and when the water pressure was restored in the hoses practically the entire front part of the roof had collapsed, and the flames were roaring high above the house. Firemen inside worked under trying conditions, as apart from the heat, there was a tremendous amount of smoke, possibly occasioned by the creosoted boards of which the upper floor was constructed. Several firemen working inside were considerably affected by the dense smoke, although respirators not brought into action. The strong jets of water playing from inside sent tiles and fragments of charred wood flying as the firemen gradually made progress, and several people watching the blaze from the ramp below hurriedly shifted their positions. Streams of water also fell down on to the ramp on occasions. Once the firemen had the flames under .control the end came quickly, but the most that could be done was to save the ground floor from fire damage, although the flames penetrated down the stairway for some distance. The upper floor with almost all its contents was gutted, the roof, for the main part, being reduced to a few blackened beams. Downstairs the rooms had happily been saved from serious fire damage, but although canvas coverings were quickly put over the contents, the floors were flooded with water from above, and water had 'also made its way through the ceilings. One of the occupants of the house made his escape in his pyjamas, practically all his clothing being destroyed. He was provided with clothes by some kindly neighbours. Owing to the rapidity with which the flames spread very little could be salvaged from the house, one or two small, articles only being removed from the upper floor. The fire destroyed most of the records for many years past of the New Zealand Croquet Association of which Mrs. Austin is the secretary.