FIRE IN KYBER PASS ROAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9149, 3 September 1888, Page 3

FIRE IN KYBER PASS ROAD.

TWO HOUSES BURNT. At about half-past seven o'clock last evening a fire was discovered in one of a block of wooden buildings at the corner of Kyber Pass Road and Arawa-street. Mr. Boon, who is employed at Messrs. W. Phillips and Son, Queen-street-, appears to have been the first to make the discovery, and break into the house and give the alarm. The block of buildings consists of throe sixroomed cottages facing Kyber Pass Road, and at the corner asmall shop is built in front of one of them ; and here Mrs. L. W. Eaton carries on a fruit and lolly store, the house at the rear being occupied by Mr. Levi \V. Eaton and his wife as a dwelling house. The whole block belongs to Mr. Albert Eaton, his father being one of his tenants. The fire was first discovered in the rear of the dwelling house in the kitchen, and it had then a good hold and spread rapidly through the house. The neighbours exerted themselves with good will and saved a quantity of furniture, and the Kyber contingent of the fire brigade soon arrived after the alarm was given. Unfortunately there was little pressure of water for the first five minutes or so, but the higher pressure then being put on, and the city I ire Brigade, under Superintendent Hughes, having arrived with great expedition, leads of water were got in play front and rear. By this time the fire, however, had extended to the second house, occupied by Mr. James Henderson, a warder in the Mount Eden Gaol, but Mr. Henderson and his friends cleared out most of the furniture and effects. The house was gutted, but left standing, and the fire was not allowed to spread to the third house in the block, which was occupied by Mrs.- Dorrington, and Mrs. Eaton's shop was only slightly damaged. The houses were insured by Mr. Albert Eaton in the South British otfice for £200 each, and his own house, which faces Arawa-street, and which was detached a considerable distance, was slightly scotched. This is insured in the same office for £500. Mr L. W. Eaton's furniture was insured in the Norwich Union for £150; the store was insured in the name of Mr. Beale, who advanced the money to build it to his mother-in-law, Mrs. Eaton, for £50 or £00, but we have not been able to ascertain in what office, and the stock, which was considerably damaged by heat and water, was insured in the Norwich Union for £50. Mr. Henderson's furniture, the greater portion of which was saved, was insured in the Royal for £40. Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Eaton were absent on a visit to their daughter at Archhill, and Mr. A. Eaton and his family were at the Tabernacle when the lire broke out. Mrs. Eaton, sen., says that there was some fire left on a colonial oven in the kitchen when they went out in the afternoon, and it was here that the fire appeared to have originated. A very large crowd assembled when the alarm was given, as people were then about leaving the various churches, but the police under Sergeant McMahon rendered good service in keeping them back, so as to prevent them from interfering with the firemen's operations. Detectives Hughes and McGrath, assisted by the local constable (Dewes), made the fullest inquiries possible into the whole of the circumstances of the fire.