FIRE AT KENSINGTON.

Evening Star, Issue 6038, 19 July 1882, Page 2

FIRE AT KENSINGTON.

Shortly before last night three buildings in Kaugington werp*tatalfer»destroyed by fire. The flames spread' wpidly oWina to uhe houßca bfliag very old. "ft lion tJw'Dunedin and Suburban Fire Brigades piS tn' an appearance considerable time was .wasted before tlB fireplug, near Hayes's Hotel,<Wuld b» i»ilnd. and water had to be pumped irom a pond, but the supply sooii gave ,out. .The firemen, however, worked epterid'dly, and succeeded in confining the fire to the three buiiaingd, there appearing at one time a probability of the whole block going. A volunteer, whose name we could not ascertain, stood the heat gallantly while he threw buckets of water on an adjoining house, and to his exertions in a measure the non-destrudtion of that place was dltt. TBtt fir* tHfdke otit in a bineroomed wooden house, owned and dccliniM by Samuel Mewhinney, storekeeper and hawker, Grosvenorstreet, at about 10.30 p.m. Besidesthe house, a three-stalled stable and shed were burned 1 dowii; alsd A thfee-roomcd wooden d**m fthd. exempted Vj Bobort ,Ka&, butcher, with stable, fowlhouae, and flausftg3room* and a fivc-roomed house occupied by James Sutton and owned by Mrs Burn*. It is impossible to ascertain the insurance* on Mewhinney's place, as the owner has been upcountry for the last three weeks. Kftefl shop and outhouses were insured for JAW I in the Standard office, and Mrs Burns's house for Ll5O in the same office. Sutton's furniture was not insured, but was mostly all saved. Mrs Mewhinney states that she went to the theatre at seven o'clock, leaving a small fire on in the kitchen, a kerosene lamp burning low Oh the kitchen-tablo, and a very small fire in the sitting-room upstairs. Before going oud she fastened all the doors, and took her four children with hex-. This is all she knows about the matter. One of the front rooms was occupied as a general store, and in this the post office box was kept. The front portion of Rao's house was occupied M a butcher's shop., Kae does not sleep On his premises, but a man namod Archibald Miller* who slept at the back of the Shop, says he went to bed at 10.15 p.m, aiid about a quarter of an hour later heard a crackling noise. On jumping up he lighted a candle, and, finding that the fire was coming through from Mewhinney's house, he at once gave the alarm.