DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT AVONDALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9030, 17 April 1888, Page 5

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT AVONDALE.

THE AVONDALE HOTEL TOTALLY

DESTROYED. &5 announced in yesterday's issue, a firo was observed raging in the Avondale district yesterday morning at an early hour. ft transpires that the fire was a very serious One, resulting in the total destruction of the Avondale Hotel (a large two-storey buildIng containing fifteen rooms and cohered by a elate roof), together with all the furniture, stock, arid effects which it contained. The hotel was owned by Mr. Robert Dakin, and was let on a ten-year lease, rive of which had expired, to Mr. James Murdoch, the licensee. It was a very faithfully erected building, being pub up to the order of the late proprietor, Mr. Palmer. The only occupants of the hotel at the time the fire broke out were Mr. Murdoch, his wife and two children, and a servant-girl, all of whom elept upstairs. Mr. Murdoch states that when he and the other inmates retired for the night, there was no appearance of any fire,but. at about 2 o'clock in the morning he was awakened by dense smoke in his bedroom. He attempted to get downstairs, but was stopped by the smoke, and he at once turned his attention to saving his family. He got them out on the balcony, and then slid down one of the verandah posts, and procuring a ladder which was available, he erected it against the balcony, and gob his family and the servant girl safely down. They were only able to save a few articles of clothing. By the time Mr. Murdoch got his family safely down the whole of the lower portion of the hotel was a solid mass of flames, and he was unable to form any idea where the fire originated. Mr. Murdoch states that amongst bis other losses was £96 in cash. The »otol was insured in the New Zealand Office for £800. The stock was insured for £200, the furniture for £500, and a piano [or £30, in all £7:50, in the South British ; •>ut this company lrad effected re-insurances of £250 in the Phcenix Office, and £2.30 in the Equitable, leaving £250 as the total ioaa of the South British.