Hawke's Bay Herald MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1886. SATURDAY'S FIRE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7621, 20 December 1886, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1886. SATURDAY'S FIRE.

NAt'iKK had an experience, on .Saturday such as few of our residents believed to be within tho bounds of possibility. In two hours a space of several acres in tho. middle of the town was clean swept of Jniildings by lire. Over vacant plots and wide streets the (lames spread, and had tlicro been a high wind the loss g( property must have been enormously greater Ihau that we have now to deplore. How did this happen, seeing that the town pos- . sses two Jiro brigades, and a wato, supply winch lias cost tens of thousands of pounds 1 We only repeat what is .in . • everyone's mouth when we nay that someone blundered. Who it iv/is we arc not prepared to say, but exhaustive inquiry should ho mado mill tlio Mumo laid on

proper shoulders. We write in no venge- . ful spirit, bnt we maintain that to guard against a similar or even worse catastrophe in the future it is necessary that Saturday's iire should l>o • thoroughhMnvestigated, The iire occurred \n ] b'rbad daylight, within a stono's-throw of the station-house where steam and manual

tire-engines stood in readiness, and hurdreds of feet of hose lay neatly coiled on reels. The mains attached to both high and lew reservoirs were close at hand, and within a few yards of the place, where the outbreak occurred there was a salt water well available for the use of the steam-engine. Under such conditions the lire should not have been allowed to spread beyond the buildings in which it originated, or at most that and the. next • building. Most certainly it should never have been allowed to cross Tennysonstreet, and tho fact that it did so is in itself proof of the necessity for investigatiou. It is hard, perhaps, that volunteer

iiremen should be severely criticised, or their judgment called into question, but if they have been at .fault it is necessary that that fault should be clearly pointed out, as a safeguard against its repetition. We aro not among those who senselessly

declare that the lire brigades were useless on Saturday. No one can accurately estimate the value of their services, anil wo do not stretch probabilities when we say but for them the' Criterion block, the Masonic block, Messrs Neal and Close's enormous establishment, and many other valuable buildings must have gone, and the chances are that the whole business portion of the town would have been swept away. We give tho brigades all credit for their invaluable aid. But the admission that so much good service was done does not excuse the fact that the fire was allowed to spread beyond all reasonable limits, considering the means of prevention which havo been provided. It may not be the fault of the brigades at ail — those in charge of the water supply may be the responsible parties— or the ■ want of a proper nnderstaudingbetween the different heads may be the explanation. Wo are not in a position to pronounce judgment, and we therefore refrain from imputing blame to any particular man or set of men. But we repeat that someone blundered, and that that blunder caused tlio loss of many thousand ponnds' worth of property, and it is the duty of the LorongU Council to endeavor to find out the source of weakness in our system of fire-prevention. v