FIRES.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12951, 28 December 1904, Page 3

FIRES.

PERTH, Tuesday. The fire on the steamer Sophocles originated in the refrigerating storeroom abaft the refrigerating engineroom. It had a strong hold when discovered and spread to the No. 4 insulating chamber, the charcoal fumes preventing all efforts to cope with the flames. The captain and several of the engineers were prostrated owing to inhaling the fumes. The whole of the insulated portion of the bulkhead was destroyed. The burnt storeroom contained seventy cylinders of carbonic acid gas. Water was kept playing on them all the time to prevent an explosion. MELBOURNE, Tuesday.

Serious bush and grass fires have occurred in the Bairnsdale district. At Cobram a fire swept over several farms in an incredibly short space of time, end there were several narrow escapes from loss of life. SYDNEY, Tuesday. A miner's hut at Mudgee has been destroyed by fire. The seven occupants were badly burnt. One child is dead, and two others are in a hopeless condition. DUNEDIN, Tuesday. A five-roomed house in Caversham, owned by Mrs Harriet Gill, was, with jis contents, destroyed by fire. Mrs GUI had a joint policy on the house and another adjoining for £435 in the Royal. The occupant's furniture was uninsured. Two fires occurred at Taradale yesterday. At 5a m. the butcher’s shop of Messrs W. Dickinson and Son, with private dwelling attached, was totally destroyed. The family had removed into a new house, and their furniture had all been shifted. It being a holiday, no one was in the shop, and the origin of the fire is unknown. The budding was insured for £4(X) in the Commercial Union office. At about noon a fire broke out at Waterpark, the residence of Mr H. Shore, who is employed at Mrs Allen’s furniture establishment in Napier. A couple of children were in the house at the time, Mr and Mrs Shore and the rest of the family being in the back garden, under the shelter of some trees. Tiie fire started in the kitchen, bat how it was caused is a mystery. A piano and a few articles of furniture were saved. The house and effects were insured, but owing to yesterday’s being a holiday particulars’ were not ascertainable.