FIRES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7228, 30 April 1884, Page 5

FIRES.

A three-roomed cottage on the Drain road, Linwood, was burnt down last evening. The owner and occupier (Mr Michael Moyling) was away at Lincoln, his wife and four children being in the house. Shortly before 8 p.m. a kerosene lamp on the kitchen table burst, and the room was soon in flames. The neighbours quickly came to Mrs Moyling’s assistance, the children were got out in safety, and a quantity of the furniture was also saved. On either side, not many feet off, were houses occupied by Messrs Marfell and Barker respectively. Towards the latter, which was to the east, the south-east wind drove the flames, but the walls were of brick, and no damage was done. Mr Barker’s house was of wood, but the efforts of 'the neighbours in throwing water, seconded by the chemical engine/ which was soon on the spot after the alarm was sounded, kept it from injury. Mr Mpyling and his family have lost heavily. Their furniture was not insured, nor, so far as could be ascertained last night, was their little cottage, of which nothing remains standing but the chimney. Intelligence reached Ashburton yesterday that, at 9 o’clock in the morning, the Spread Eagle Hotel, in the Porks district, had been burned down. The lessee of the hotel was Mr Joseph Baldwin, who was about to relinquish it, it is said, to the proprietor of the building—Mr Phillip Tisch. Nothing is at present known of how the fire originated, nor for how'much the place is insured.