BIG WELLINGTON FIRE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 101, 29 March 1939, Page 11

BIG WELLINGTON FIRE

CITY BUILDING GUTTED SPECTACULAR EVENING BLAZE Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 28. A fire in the centre of the city to-night gutted Victoria House, a. building of five storeys and basement in Victoria Street, and the top floor of Ilallenstein Brothers’ three-storey building in Willis Street. The sixteen tenants of Victoria House, chiefly manufacturers’ agents and importers, lost all their stock, valued at many thousands of pounds. Some carried no insurance. The top floor of Ilallenstein Brothers’ building was used as a dance studio by Miss Phyllis Bates. The fire was discovered by a woman in the lift-well of Victoria House at 6.50 p.m. The flames quickly swept through the building, which had walls of bricks and a wooden interior, and by the time the brigade arrived the flames were breaking through the roof. By 5.45 p.m. the interior of Victoria House was a raging inferno. Blazing embers an inch or more in diameter were showered on the dense crowd that quickly gathered and threatened to set fire to buildings hundreds of yards away. The floors of Victoria House crashed one by one and the firemen were forced to turn their efforts to preventing the spread of the blaze. Panned by a northerly breeze, the fire swept through to Hallenstein Brothers’ building in Willis Rt.re'et at, the rear of Victoria House. By 9.30 the brigade had the outbreak under control and the flames were dying down, but dense clouds of smoke still poured from the blackened ruins.

FIRE SPREADS RAPIDLY. The alarm was given by Mr B. 0. Walton, an employee of Progress Motors, situated opposite Victoria House. A woman rushed to him about 6.50 p.m., saying there was a fire in the lift well of the building. Mr Walton saw several packing eases in the well blazing fiercely, and immediately rang the fire brigade. Within a very short time a number of engines were at the scene of the outbreak, but by this time the flames had shot up well to the top floor and had started to break through the roof. The fire apparently spread backward as well as upward, for in Chew’s Lane smoko could he seen issuing through holes in the wall. The intense heat had also cracked the top walls of the building. At this time the fire was not spectacular and the only place where the flames could bo seen was this lane. The huge clouds of smoke, however, attracted attention. Tongues of flame shooting through the heavy pall of smoke provided an eerie sight, and flames streaming away from the flagpole on top of Victoria House made it appear as though there were a fiery flag streaming from the mast. This continued to smoulder for more than an hour. Gradually the fire worked its way down from the top of the building, and as each floor was eaten through there was a resounding crash which made the nearby spectators rush for shelter. There was a continual cloud of sparks being swept away from the top of the building, and they were carried along by the wind and threatened the safety of the adjoining buildings. Showers of sparks also fell on the streets, making a brilliant sight on the black, wet roadway. EXPLOSIONS OCCUR. As the fire ate its way through the floors flames shot out through the windows, which were soon smashed. Loud explosions at about 8 o’clock sent the people watching the fire from Victoria Street to the nearest shelter. The exact nature of these could not bo determined, but* they seemed to come from the vicinity of Victoria House. They were heard distinctly as far away from the city as Kelburn, one mile distant. Windows crashed on to the street and there was a wild scramble into doorways.

The explosions shattered many -windows in buildings on the opposite side of the street to Victoria House. At this time the fire in Victoria House seemed to l>e confined mainly to the three top floors. Dense black smoke issued from the second floor, but there were no flames. The fire seemed, however, to have a grip on tho first floor, where the outbreak was blazing fiercely. Several smaller explosions occurred later as other inflammable material caught fire. COLLAPSE FEARED. Fears that the front wall of the building would collapse caused the firemen to renew even more strenuously their attack on the outbreak in Victoria Street soon after eight o’clock and four leads of hose were played on tho fire. Falling cinders punctured the hoses, and water spouting from these holes flowed across the street into the gutters which were already taxed to capacity by the water running from tho buildings. Tho City Council employees cut off the electric power to the sub-station in Chows Lane at about 8.30. The fir© broke out with renewed vigour about 8.45, the flames shooting many feet into the sky from tho top of Victoria House. By this timo the whole'-interior of the building was a raging inferno, and the heat from the flames could bo felt 100 yards away. Most of tho floors had collapsed and the brigadesmen concentrated their attention on preventing the fire spreading to other buildings. Sparks had set minor outbreaks going on several buildings, but theso were suppressed without much difficulty. Tho work of the fire-fighters began to have an appreciable effect by 9.30 p.m. when the flames were dying away. The shower of sparks had ceased, but huge clouds of smoke continued to pour from the burnt buildings. Five floors of Victoria House had been gutted together with the contents. VAST CROWDS PRESENT. To-night’s fire has l>cen exceeded only as a spectaclo in recent years in Wellington by tho social security building blaze seven weeks ago. It drew vast crowds of spectators to tho city, while thousands more watched it from many vantage points on the surrounding hills. A dancing lesson in Miss Phyllis Bates’s studio in Willis Street was in progress when smoke was scon coming through the studio door. The dancers carried on, thinking tho smoko was steam from tho kitchen, but they made a hurried exit ns the flames burst through the rear wall. Two machines operated from Chew’s Lane, running from Willis Street to Victoria Street, and from the right-of-way off the lane. The fire in Victoria House was attacked from the rear by two powerful lines of hose. The firemen had to fight against great odds, however, as tho wind blowing from the north was against them. Chew’s Lane was showered with burning embers which noth every gust of wind were sprayed across Willis Street. Before them tho crowd melted

more quickly than it wonld before the mounted police. Early salvage operations were commenced from the factory and workshop in Chew’s Lane of Whitcombo and Caldwell, Ltd., gun makers and sports goods manufacturers. Cases of ammunition were carried across tho lane through the spray of embers and stowed in tho Hotel Windsor building by a willing band of helpers. Two engines worked from "Willis Street and two leads of hose were taken over the top of a three-storey building formerly occupied on the top floors by tho British and Continental Piano Coy., Ltd., and further leads from the two-storey building to the south of it. ■ Later leads were taken through shops on the ground floors of those buildings. Willis Street carried a dense crowd of several thousand people, and as tho fire drove its way through from Victoria Street the police ordered them back. The firemen were putting up a desperate light, but at that stage could do little to stem the progress of the flames. By 8.45 p.m. the fire had reached tho Willis Street front, and tho flames hurst through the windows of Miss Phyllis Bates’s studio, which was a raging furnace inside. Tho firemen were driven down from the top of the British and Continental Piano Coy.’s building by the advancing flames on to the building below. A third machine was brought to Willis Street, and two leads of hose were played from the ground through the windows of tho dance studio. Later the firemen climbed a fire escape and trained a third hose into the studio, which was on the top floor, and tho outbreak there was soon subdued. FIREMEN INJURED. Bands of willing civilian helpers and several Territorials lent their aid to the firemen, among whom there were several casualties. One man had a hand badly injured and another a leg. Every available lead of hose was brought into use from the Willis Street side in an endeavour to stem the advance of the fire. For sonic time it seemed that little impression was being made on tho blaze, which embraced steadily an increasing block of buildings.

By 9 p.m., however, the advance had been checked and the men soon drove it back practically to its seat in Victoria House. From that time on the outbreak was entirely under control. _ The tram service through Willis Street was diverted through Jervois Quay shortly after the brigadesmen arrived, and all traffic through Willis Street was prohibited. Early in the evening a denso crowd of pedestrians packed the street. They w.ere driven hack, first by showers of embers and spray blown back from tho leads of the hose. Later the police put cordons across the street, and the crowd were set back to them. From the fire were hurled cascades of sparks and flaming brands which provided a display which was both spectacular and fraught with peril to the crowd in the streets, and a constant menace to buildings over a wide area. Flaming fragments were driven fully a mile, pouring down on the upturned. faces, and making a crimson carpet on the adjacent streets and thickly mantling the roofs of nearby buildings. ATTENDANT OUTBREAKS. Several incipient outbreaks occurred. These were extinguished by regular firemen detailed to watch" outlying points and by volunteer workers. Though containing all the elements of danger, fortunately these fires were extinguished before they could obtain a firm hold. Soon aftor the main outbreak sparks flung outward and upward from Victoria .House began to fall in a dense shower on buildings in the immediate vicinity. The tallest directly in tho path of tho sparks and less than a hundred yards away was the Dominion building. Tho material on the rooF took fire, but the flames were put out by the staff. Tho flat roof was so thickly covered with sparks and brands, some of which wore two feet long, that it was impossible to take a step without trending on them, and a hose had to be kept in constant use for two hours to keep flic position under control. Another outbreak occurred on the roof of tho Majestic Theatre in Willis Street 300 yards from tho seat of the fire. Tt, too, was put out. A further incipient outbreak occurred on tho roof of Gates’s restaurant opposite the Majestic Theatre, but it was also dealt with by volunteers. The most serious outbreak of this nature was in Manners Street, a quarter of a mile from Victoria House, and it kept several men fully occupied for 20 minutes coping with tho flames which at one stage promised to become serious. Near the Y.M.C.A. building, in Upper Willis Street, the hood of a parked motor car took fire. There were several other incipient outbreaks of a minor nature nearer to tho fire. Auxiliary firemen were busy with hoses playing them on shop verandahs, on the facade of the Dominion building, on Martin’s shoe stores nearly op-

posite, and other buildings in Mercer Street. ANXIETY CREATED. There was great danger on the extensive roof area of Duthie’s building, which extends from Willis Street into Victoria Street. It formed a natural catchment area lor low-lying sparks and heavy eml>ers. The heat generated from tho closely-matted sparks threatened'to frustrate tho efforts of the brigade to localise tho outbreak. The brfga.de brought its high extension ladder into operation in Willis Street, firemen being stationed at the top oi it to direct a constant stream of water on to Duthio's roof. The spectators in Willis Street expected to see tho upper storeys of the Windsor Hotel engulfed in flame, so fierce and insistent was the spattering of sparks against tho windows. That building, though, alwnit 50 yards .awa.v from the scat of the fire, withstood the heat. Many of the guests, anticipating tho worst, vacated their rooms. A rumour spread among the crowd that, the rear portion of the Empire Hotel on the north, side of Victoria House had caught fire. In the hotel itself many of the guests vacated their rooms, .and with their belongings congregated in the foyer in anxious expectation. Other guests congregated on the south side of the building, where they witnessed the full effect of the fierce blaze as from a theatre box, probably less than 20 yards from tho flames. The awe-inspiring scene, coupled with the intermittent crash of falling glass, brick 9, mortar and other debris, will long be remembered by those who witnessed it, but the intensity of the beat very quickly caused them to vacate their vantage points. SALVAGE OPERATIONS. As the magnitude of the fire became apparent, the occupiers o! shops and business premises, particularly in Willis Street, were quickly on the scene and, with the assistance or the fire police under Captain K. J. Ballinger and Deputy-Cap tain J. A. Short., began to remove their belongings to safety. Amid tho dense smoke and thickening rain of sparks the shop-owners, their omplovees, and friends worked feverishly to salvage their goods. The Empire Cafe was evacuated, and in the Empire Hotel a start was made in removing furniture from the lounge, hut a fortunate change in the direction of the wind made this precaution un necessary.

Into Willis Street with its slippery, wet bitumen criss-crossed with hoses came lorries to remove the belongings which had been hurriedly carried out on to the pavement. A dozen premises were threatened, and the scene resembled on a small scale the evacuation of a bombed city with smoke and sparks heightening the illusion. The windows and show cases of E. A. Cattin. jewellers, were cleared, and also the stocks from the Columbia Radio Shop, F. J. W. Fear and Co. (bicycle and radio importers). Madame Dnwne (gown specialist). Boulevard Tailors, the Electrical Service Coy., I Ltd., and Frank Petrie (tailors). The promises of McLean and Archibald, Ltd. (tool specialists) suffered extensively from water which poured through the shop drenching everything and flowing nut across the pavement into Willis Street. The police on duty as well as fourteen fire police did excellent work in controlling the crowds which thronged Willis Street, Mercer Street and Victoria Street. The fire police had been scattered about to prevent looting, and one man found in a shop had been taken to the police station for questioning. SEVERE LOSSES. “I said good-bye to him just before he left for the South Island on Monday night. Now that's good-bye to his stock and a pretty severe blow it will he,” said a bystander referring to Mr W. W. Allan, manager of Whiteway and Co., manufacturers' representatives. Heading hack to work was Mr B. Ha.rdie, accountant for the Gourack Ropework Export Co., Ltd., when ho overhead a remark that Victoria House was on fire. But for other circumstances intervening he would in all probability have been in the building when the fire broke out. The Dominion Dental Supplies, Ltd., had moved into the ground floor only within the past month or two, taking over the premises previously occupied by the Bruce Woollen Manufacturing Cov., Ltd. One of the most serious aspects of the fire losses is that almost without exception the tenants were importers who had already been hit by the import restrictions. A subject for conjecture among a number of onlookers who were familiar with the business of those whose stocks were destroyed was whether they would be able lo secure fresh licenses. It was considered that unless these were available they would he completely wiped out. FIREMEN’S HEAVY TASK. “When wo arrived at Victoria House the fire was already well-estab-lished and breaking out on all floors," said Mr C. A. Woolley, superintendent of the Wellington Fire Brigade, in an interview. “I immediately gave the brigade a call and we put- three deliveries inside the building, but the flames were leaping ahead of us and spreading so rapidly that by the time I reached the sixth floor they were bursting through the roof. It was impossible to hold our ground and wo

were compelled to retire to the outside. “The alarm was given at 6.59 p.m.. when a telephone call was received at the Central Station. It was answered immediately by the flying squad, and three minutes later a brigade call went through to all stations. Every available unit was pressed into service, and within a short time of the alarm nine machines and between 60 and 70 firemen were engaged in fighting the flames. “The flames spread so rapidly that even when the flying squad arrived they were mushrooming through file seven lloors of the tall building, and tongues of flames were leaping and curling from the broken windows. The firemen, in spite of the terrific heat, entered fhc building immediately, the flames going ahead of us quicker than wo could stop them,” said Mr Woollev.