DISASTROUS FIRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 1647, 11 March 1922, Page 5

DISASTROUS FIRE.

WELLINGTON CONFLAGRATION

CITY WATER SUPPLY CUT OFF

ELEVEN HOUSES DESTROYED.

(By Telegraph. —Press Association.) Wellington, this dar.

A disastrous fire broke out in Maurice Terrace, off Wellington Terrace, at 7.40 this morning, apparently as the result of the overturning of a kerosene cooking-lamp or stove in an apartment house about the centre of the block, and the houses close by were burned. The fire was a great misfortune to the city, as the water supply was cut off through a break in the main a considerable distance from the city. A strong northerly wind simply rushed the flames before it, and within an hour six houses, all two-storey-ed, wooden buildings, were blazing furiously, and were soon reduced to heaps of ruins. Practically nothing was saved from any central houses of the Terrace and very little from others. For a time, Wellington Terrace itself was threatened, and a general clearance was made of furniture and goods by voluntary helpers. At nine o’clock the fire commenced to work against the wind in Mount Street, but ten minutes later a single lead of water of fair pressure was brought over the hill from the Kelburn upper level reservoir, and the brigade under Superintendent Tail, made a wonderful save of a bouse that was just alight, and held the fire. Had not that lead been available, it is probable that at least 50 instead of 11 houses would have gone. As most of the houses are let in apartments, probably 40 or 50 families were burned out. The loss runs into many thousands of pounds.