WALLSEND FIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 August 1934, Page 2

WALLSEND FIRE

ALBION HOTEL DESTROYED. Fire totally destroyed the Albion Hotel (generally known as Fitzpatrick’s) at Wallsend, early this morning, nothing being saved except a. few of the personal belongings of the licensee and his wife, Mr and Mrs E. Moore. The hotel was a wooden building of two storeys, about 50 years old, and containing about a. dozen rooms. It was the property of Mr and Mrs Moore. About 3.30 a.m., the next-door neighbour ,Mrs Creagh, noticed the smell of burning, and awoke her son, who found that the hotel was on fire, and gave the alarm. The only occupants were Mr and Mrs Moore, and a niece of Mrs Moore, and they got out safely, but nothing could be done to save the building. The fire is believed to have started in the kitchen. The insurances are as follow: Building, £530 in the Guardian and Mercantile and General Offices; stock, £5O in the Mercantile and General Office; furniture and effects, £370 in the Guardian Office. LONDON SCHOOL-DRILL RUGBY, August 30. During a fire which destroyed a large factory in Camden Town, London, a warning was sent to a school nearby where some 600 children were at lessons. The school fire-alarm sounded. The children who thought it ordinary drill were marched out of the building in perfect order and dismissed.

Later, the school playground was used for one of the many water-towers from which the firemen fought the flames.