SETTLER’S HOME DESTROYED

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 July 1927, Page 5

SETTLER’S HOME DESTROYED

BLAZE AT WHAREROA

EARLY MORNING FIRE

The 10-roomed farm residence owned and occupied by Mr. H. Benton and family on the l YYhareroa road, about three miles from Hawera, was totally destroyed, with, practically all its contents, as the result of a fire which broke out in the early hours of this morning, Mr. and Mrs. Benton, with their three children, being compelled to make a hasty escape with what clothes could be gathered. Aroused by a peculiar sound at about 20 minutes past two o’clock, Mrs. Benton went to the dining-room, situated across the passage-way from her own room, and found the chimney Ixix above the fireplace to lie in flames. Mrs. Benton awakened her husband and their two sons and a daughter. Then, with sparks from the rapidly spreading fire flying around her, she stood at the telephone in the passage and sent an appeal for help to the house of a neighbour, Mr. G. Luscombe. From the latter house other neighbours were notified, and in a short, space of time several gathered at the scene, hut in the absence of water pressure nothing could be done to check the flames, and within the space of an hour the homestead was to a smouldering mass of ruins. Before arrival of the neighbours the family had been able to rescue a couple of chairs and bedsteads, together with some personal effects, but were unable, a few moments after the tire was first discovered to enter the building. The cause of the outbreak lias not lieen definitely ascertained, but is believed to have been the result of a defect in the dining-room chimney. Built of heart of kauri some 24 years ago. the house was a valuable one, and it is estimated that it could not be replaced to-day for three times the original cost of £I2OO. Insurances on the house and farm outbuildings totalled £I2OO, and the contents of the house were insured for £385. Mr. and Mrs. Benton will, however, be heavy losers, almost ail the personal property of the family having been destroyed, and the furnishings, including among other prized possessions three paintings which had been hung in the Royal Academy. . The blaze was noted by the nightwatchman at Haiwera shortly -alter half-past two. He notified the brigade, biit as the fire was obviously besond the area no immediate action was taken About two minutes later, however, the brigade turned out in response to a call sent from the alarm box on the corner of Regent Street and South Road. The superintendent, with a crew of six. took the machine as far as the boundary on the South Road, the railway crossing, but then returned to the station, as the fire, being over a mile from the boundary, was too far away to make assistance possible