LAUNDRY FIRE IN WELLINGTON

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6864, 20 March 1929, Page 6

LAUNDRY FIRE IN WELLINGTON

EARLY MORNING BLAZE. 11 Times ’ ’ Special. WELLINGTON, Last Night. Fire completely destroyed the drycleaning department of the Victoria Laundry Company’s works early this morning. The dry-cleaning and finishing room was situated at the rear of tho company’s premises in Hansen ■’street, Wellington South, and was a wooden building, some 100 feet long and 40 feet in width. The alarm was given at about 5 o’clock, but it was apparent that the fire had been burning for long before that time. Shortly after the fire was discovered tho iron roof fell in, and when the brigado arrived the place was a mass of flames. The brigade turned their attention towards the neighbouring portions' of the# laundry, which, though scorched by the flames, were saved from destruction. A motor-car and van in the vicinity of the fire were badly damaged. Tho flames had practically done all their work when the alarm was given, and, as a consequence, the building was gutted. -Nothing was left standing. The sheets of the iron were twisted with the hdht, and the little machinery left visible bore ample testimony to tho fierceness of the flames. Even the piles in the ground were burnt. Fortunately,. the main laundry building which adjoins is of modern construction, and 1 except for the fact that numerous panes of thick glass were cracked with the heat, tho building was undamaged. The insurances. Insurances on the Victoria Laundry buildings, part of which were destroyed by fire this morning, are as follow: Machinery, £14,200 in the'Victoria Insurance Office; buildings, £7300 in the Victoria Insurance Office; two delivery vans, £75 and £IOO respectively in the Victoria Insurance Office; contents, £2150; insurance on linen, etc., £1751) in the Royal Insurance Office. A policy covering linen and wearing apparel, etc., was held in the Victoria Insurance Office for £SOOO. A 5-seater car was instiled for £550 in tho Victoria Office.