LATER PARTICULARS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIII, Issue 288, 10 December 1898, Page 2

LATER PARTICULARS.

RAPID SPREAD OF THE

FLAMES.

NARROW ESCAPES.

INMATES JUMP PROM UP-

STAIR WINDOWS.

SENSATIONAL INCIDENTS.

About one o'clock this morning a fire broke out m the Royal Oak Hotel, one of the largest hotels m Wellington, which covered an extensive area of ground at tbe corner of Cuba and Manners Streets.

It spread with such amazing rapidity that soon the whole part of the building facing Cuba Street was a mass of flames.

A fall complement of firemen was speedily on the scene, bat despite their efforts it was obvious that the building was utterly doomed. A large number of boarders were sleeping m the hotel, and some of them were only aroused with the greatest diffionlty.

Ladies rushed from the burning building m scant attire, their shrieks of dismay being heard a considerable distance away.

Many very narrow escapes are recorded, and m several instanoeß boarders jumped from upstairs win* dows on to the pavement below. In essaying this feat one man broke his ankle.

Another man had to desoend from the top storey window by a ladder sapported on the cross-bar of a tele* graph pole. All accounts agree that the flames spread with extraordinary rapidity, and inmates were satisfied to escape with their Lvea withont troubling about any of their personal effects.