GREAT FIRES IN HASTINGS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 6 February 1931, Page 9

GREAT FIRES IN HASTINGS

A young man living in Hastings, fearing that his sister, who was a nurse at Napier Hospital, might have been a victim, hurried in to investigate. He could find no trace of her, but after further search discovered her lying among the dead. He did what little he could and, going straight back to Hastings, went on police duty in the town and with complete selfpossession spent- the entire night at work. Then, after a light breakfast and a few minutes sleepless rest, he went to do other work, wherever workers were needed. A mother, whose little child was somewhere in the town, though filled with anxiety for her girl’s safety, gave her time and professional skill in an attempt to ease the pain and •save the life of a- gravely injured man who was partly buried under a concrete coping. The man subsequently died and it was later discovered that the heroic woman’s daughter had been buried and killed. T. H. Gill. a well-known land agent, lost his life in attempting to save the life of Miss Houlaghan, one of his clerks, but both were trapped under the debris. A young woman assistant employed in the department store of Roach’s, Ltd., was partly buried and most painfully injured when the building entirely collapsed. TV hen the rescuers came to her she insisted very urgently. but unsuccessfully, that the man lying partly buried beside her should be moved first After the first dreadful shock men and women became calm and determined that everything _ humanly possible to succour the injured should he done instantly. With amazing speed and efficiency the staff of Eoyston Private Hospital, assisted not only by local doctors and nurses, hut by outside men and women helpers, established a casualty station at the kiosk on Hasting racecourse. Long before the usual hour of tea. every one injured. perhaps 100 in number. not counting those privately treated and many others at the Memorial Hospital. had been accommodated in beds and stretchers lmrnedly brought from elsewhere. Their wounds had been dressed and otherwise tended and they made comfortable. P. AND T. OFFICERS.

No less praiseworthy was the work of the Post and Telegraph Department. By six o’clock a scheme of improvising a telegraph despatch office had been evolved and within an hour had been put into execution. All night Jong, with a continual stream of people waiting to send messages away, the staff worked without pause and without complaint. Each telegram had to he iread over the telephone to the operators at Waipukurau, from which town all local messages are at present being transmitted. The first shift worked without a break for 26 hours and the office has continued night and day. In another improvised office there is a steadily maintained pile of literally hundreds of telegrams which the Dostal staff has undertaken to deliver. Great efforts to establish more workable communication with the outside world should shortly be complete. Heroic work was done by the Hastings Fire Brigade, which had to dig its way through the front of the fire station before the engine could be got out. Fires broke out at four points in the main street, but the water supply was very soon put out of action and the fire had to be allowed to more or less exhaust itself. A little later a low pressure became and the fires were reduced to such proportions that they were comparatively harmless. A SECOND THEM OR. On Tuesday night the town was severely rocked by a second tremor which brought down not only the small remaining part of the Grand Hotel, but the suspended parts of other partly demolished buildings throughout the town. Soon afterwards a big flame was noticed at a point which was one of the original four fires about forty vards on the railway side of the hotel. >s T o water was available to check it and indeed it looked so harmless it was taken no notice of. Within a few minutes it had become a hundredfold more menacing and it was only a matter of further minutes when the picket and the firemen guarding the town realised that the situation had become dangerous. Only debris consisting o 1 bricks, mortar and crushed timbers served to feed the flames and it was thought at the time that it would serve as a barrier between them and the unharmed two-storied Union Bang. However, the fire spread down this mass and despite the efforts of a bucket brigade and firemen working under extreme difficulties, the flames eventually took charge and! gutted the bank. Books and rnonev had in the meantime been removed by the picket. The fire turned the corner from the main street into Karamu Road and wlenb ton almost unchecked through half-a-dozen, partly destroyed wooden and brick shops, down to the twostoried brick and concrete building owned by the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Meat Company. Tho flames were eventually checked as they broke through the walls of the national hank. That was at six o’clock on \\ ednesdav morning and the bank seemed safe. With a sudden hurst, however, the flames broke out again andl meanwhile the limited water supply had run out. Once more the fire took complete control and within a very little while tho bank was entirely cleaned out

Stories]of Magnificent Heroism PEOPLE RISE TO HEIGHTS OF SACRIFICE Heart-Breaking Task For Fire-Fighters Firemen Remove Money From Banks (Bv Telegraph —Press Association.) HASTINGS, Fob. 6. The very finest attributes of mankind were needed to withstand the terrible shock that the loss of property and lives has created in Hastings and these attributes have been exhibited in a complete and wholehearted way. Each individual example of courage and unselfishness, shown alike by men and bv women, was magnificent in itself, but those qualities, seen m the mass, were impressive beyond words. The calamity ivas an extreme test and not a citizen failed under it.

INQUIRY FOR MISSING MAN The Mayor lias received a telegram from the Mayor of Palmerston .North asking if anyone her© has any knowledge” of the whereabouts of Piers Edge cum be. No further particulars were given in the message. DISPOSITION OF INJURED STATEMENT BY MINISTER. FURTHER. BIG SHAKE AT HASTINGS. HASTINGS. Feb. C, In an official announcement made to the Press Association correspondent at Hastings last evening, the Hon. A J. Stallworthy, Minister of Health, stated that 103 casualties, mostly cot cases, had) been evacuated to Palmerston North by ambulance train. Thirty cot cases had been sent there to-day by tram. ~ , . A semi-permanent base hospital is being established at Napier and is to be fully equipped with X-ray plant and electric light. The hospital will be situated at Napier racecourse. the public Health Department officers take control of sanitation to-day. Seventy children mostly from oi - ph an ages or from homes, leave for Auckland under the auspices of the Community Sunshine League and will 1 be cairipedl at Motuihi Inland. Another party of 30 leave to-morrow. The staff, totalling 14, will be divided between two parties. . . , The medical and nursing staff in the two stricken, towns are on a perfect footing to meet every emergency. The response to the appeal for medical and nursing assistance had been so magnificent that several volunteers had reluctantly to be released to go back to their homes. The response for volunteers to lend and drive cars had been ho wonderfully well! answered that there was a surplus of 100 cars offering tc transport Napier residents to Hastings and elsewhere. “As Minister of Health,” said Mr. Stallworthy, “I should like through the Press 'Association, to express most grateful thanks to the medical and nursing staffs from Auckland to- AY ellington. Their response lias been i magnificent and has enabled! help to be given to aI!L in need of it. The work of the allied services ha® been no less magnificent.” OFFICIAL LIST OF DEAD. j The official list of dead compiled last evening and dispatched at 10 o’clock I accounted for very nearly one hundred j deaths and presumed deaths, but there | are bodies yet to be recovered from the wreckage. The fatalities in Hastings are expected to reach between 120 and 130: The Red Cross office established at Hastings has created a sub-organisa-tion for the arrangement of transport and a steady stream of cars owned by Napier and Hastings residents has been taking people from the two towns to places as far south as Wellington. There has been a process of evacuation going on since the afternoon of the tragic day of the earthquake. It is impossible to compute how many have left under private arrangements. It stated that a thousand cars passed through Warpukurau bound southwards between Wednesday night and Thunsiv morning. The quantity of oar traffic has increased vastly, since Wednesday. many people finding it wise to leave the scene of desolation for at least p few days. On the other hand, a great many people come here from elsewhere. In j most instances their object has been to render assistance, hut it has be- ! come noticeable that hundreds who i have driven into the two towns merly 1 for the sake of curiosity have become a means of obstructing the work of reI lief. | THE BEST IN HUMAN NATURE. j Stories of the infinite kindness of I people living in outside districts eoni tinue to be told. A young Marton j baker came post haste to Hastings with, a van loaded with bread which he distributed free among the residents. I If there were any Hastings residents bdid enough to consider sleeping in houses last night, the ’quake which shook the town at- nine o’clock must have put such a notion completely out of their minds. It was a sustained violent tremor of an intensity probably equal to the second ’quake on Tues•nv night. Had there been anything standing able to come down it must surely have come down. Evidences of justifiable increasing nervousness were noticed, but what little demonstration's of fear there wore Annssed away almost as soon as the rumbling sound. ! At 2.30 this morning no further Vmakes had been felt, hut till the particularly heavy ’quake referred to there "had been an almost uninterrupted trembling of the earth. The phono .morion was so steadily maintained that most- people had repeated illusions of I the ground shaking under foot when 1 it was not. VISIT BY .MVP. I’ll© visit of numerous members of Parliament, Cabinet Ministers, memhens of the lie for m Party (including I Mr. Coates) and the Labour Party is ! most welcome to the relief committees. ! It is reassuring also to have knowledge | that the Government is sending; to the district’s aid the heads of various dei v.artments from whom help is most ' needed. These evidences of {sympathy have had a particularly heartening ! effect upon the people. | Any help forthcoming must be organised. calculated help. The whole commercial life of the town is eom-

pletely disorganised and it is likely that none of the- banks will reopen for at least another seven or eight days. At the- moment it is not.uncommon to find 'people with large cheques who cannot get cash to buy a newspaper. Maoris, and marines front the warship, are stationed at Napier and pakcha volunteers from among the townsvcople worked laboriously to-day clearing away I'aUien buildings. Aluny bodies, the presence of which had been 'itherto- unsuspected' were discovered. Much clearing work -has been done and the town looks much less desolate and much more secure. It is now heavily 'p icq noted some ol the picquet are armed and no risks arc being taken. The latitude formerly allowed when the people were loss amenable to discipline because of the excitement lias been narrowed down to nothing. It would take a clover and determined person to pass the guard unless he were properly authorised. NEW PLYAIOUTH’S RELIEF TOTAL NEW PLYMOUTH, Feb. 6. At mid-day to-day relief funds in New Plymouth had reached the total of £2OOO.