FIRE IN BOULCOTT STREET

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 156, 30 December 1940, Page 8

FIRE IN BOULCOTT STREET

OLD MASONIC HALL DESTROYED

DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT £10,000

Fire which broke out at about '9 o 'clock this morning practically destroyed one of the oldest buildings in Wellington, the former Masonic Hall in Boulcott Street. It was built in 1867 and for about twelve years past has been used as a factory and showroom by the Wellington Cabinet Company, Ltd., manufacturers of furniture, upholstery, and bedding. When the brigade arrived the flames had a fierce grip on the upper front part of the large wooden building, and the firemen did well to prevent the spread of the fire to the surrounding houses.

The shell of the building remained after the fire, but in a badly-damaged condition, and the contents of the factory and warehouse—furniture, materials for its manufacture, and machinery—were largely ruined. The damage is estimated at about £10,000.

The cause of the fire is unknown. It apparently started in an upper room of the two-storey building while men were working in the factory on the ground floor.

The building, owned by Mr. W. R. Kenner, was insured for £3000. The Wellington Cabinet Company owned the plant and machinery, which were insured for £500, and the stock, which was covered for £2000. All the insurances are with the Queensland Insurance Co., Ltd.

The brigade received the first alarm at 9.4 a.m. and immediately thereafter a number of other telephone notifications. The flames must have spread with great rapidity from the start. Passers-by a few minutes before 9 o'clock noticed nothing unusual, but the fire was well beyond the iucipient stage when the brigadesmen arrived, and as usual they wasted no time in getting there.

Nearly fifty firemen fought a strenuous battle for about an hour before the fire began to slacken, and constant attention was still being given to sporadic outbreaks around the building this afternoon. Not the least of the many difficulties that the firemen had to face was the peculiar construction of the building, which contained odd half-floors accessible only from higher levels.

The five pumping units brought into action included two of the Fire Board's latest acquisitions—powerful English machines, which provided an interesting contrast with the old Wembley Exhibition pumping unit, which is still rendering yeoman service and is wellknown to all Wellington fire-followers. One of the new English pumps demonstrated its efficiency by lifting 'he water in four leads of high-pressure hose from Lambton Quay up Plimmer's Steps to the fire. Traffic on the section occupied by the engine between the Bank of New Zealand and the Hunter Street junction was diverted around Hunter Street and Customhouse Quay.

Though there were wooden houses all around the burning building, firstclass work by the firemen saved them from any real damage. Water and smoke may have penetrated some, but of fire damage there was none. There was a gentle north-westerly wind.

Plimmer's Step?-. Leads of hose were taken in to attack the flames on every side, though st first most attention was paid to the front of the building, where the fire was at its height. There firemen with smoke helmets rushed hoses into the ground floor through the front door while the fire raged with increasing fury on the floor above them. Others shot water through the first-storey windows. Regardless of their personal safety these men, at one time assisted by a soldier, maintained their position close to the burning facade, shifting back only a few feet when flaming debris and corrugated iron crashed down.

Two brigadesmen, braced against a chimney on the roof of the house immediately to the north of the factory, kept a jet directed against and through the wall which was on fire only a few feet in front of them. Others were handling hoses from the south and the rear.

An hour passed before the flames began to die appreciably, and by that time the fire had travelled into the rear of the building.

Huge billows of smoke summoned hundreds to the scene, which could hardly have been better situated for the onlookers. Both areas of Boulcott Street where it makes the right-angle turn at Plimmer's Steps, and every vantage point of The Terrace, were crowded with people. Many people in Boulcott Street received a ducking when hoses broke or developed leaks, and firemen uncoupled them.

All the time plumes from hoses at the rear spouted skywards, appearing to emerge from the heart of the burning building, and much of this water drifted down Boulcott Street in a fine spray. Two small cars parked in Boulcott Street, one on the side of the factory and one opposite, were both saved from possible damage by cinders by the constant rain of spray.

Residents of adjoining houses shifted belongings outside, ready for transport elsewhere if the need should arise, but the firemen were able to keep the blaze to the big building.