FIRES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9993, 23 March 1893, Page 6

FIRES.

Early yesterday morning the residence o? Mr J. Forbes, Bangiora, narrowly escaped destruction by fire. Mr Forbes is from home, and at about 3 a.m. Mrs Forbes was aroused from sleep to find the house full of smoke. She raised an alarm, and a neighbour, Mr White, came to her aid, and discovered the kitchen floor to be on fire. A few buckets of water promptly applied extinguished the file, which had done but a small amount of damage. The cause of the fire was not ascertain able.

Shoitly after two o’clock yesterday afternoon a lire broke out in a seveuroomed house owned and occupied by Mr James Keogh, blacksmith, who lives on the Springfield road, St Albans. The tire was first noticed by Mr O. Chaplin, who immediately went to the St Albans Police Station and gave au alarm. The Cheater street chemical engine went to the scene of the fire, but before its arrival the flames .had obtained a firm hold of the house, which was an old wooden one. Aided by a strong wind they soon spread to a large shed a few yards from the house, and in the course of half an hour both were destroyed, not a single article of furniture being saved. When Messrs D. Griffiths. A. C. Birt, C. Chaplin, and Constable Fiswellen, who were first to appear on the scene, attempted to open the doors, they found they were securely fastened, and, in consequence, wore unable to save anything. Besides the bouse and shed, a fowl-house was burned, but, fortunately, the fowls were liberated by Constable Moors just before the flames obtained a hold of the building. It is stated that the fire started in one of the front rooms, and that Mr Keogh and his family were absent when it broke out. The house v/fv’ insured for £2OO and the furniture for £IOO, both with the Loudon and Liverpool and Globe Insurance Company, and the shed for .£4O with the Commercial Union Company.