FIRE IN WAKEFIELD-STREET

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11280, 25 January 1900, Page 5

FIRE IN WAKEFIELD-STREET

At about α-quarter pas* one o'clock this morning the city firebells rang out an alarm of fire, and it proved to be in the premises tenanted by Mr. C. A. Craig, tailor, Wake-field-street, about a hundred yards above the Clarendon Hotel, on the same side. The Auckland Firo Brigade, under Superintendent Gladding, and the Salvage Corps, under Captain Field, were smartly on the ground, and leads of hose were taken up a right-of-way into the shof fronting the street. The building was a single-storey one, the shop being divided into two compartments, where Mr. Craig did his cutting, while the three or four rooms at the back were sublet to A. Litherland and Co. The fire was suppressed after some trouble, but not till the back division was practically gutted. The room in which the fire apparently started was at the back, and it had gone through the partition into a room in which chairs, stools, and trestles were piled up in a heap. Some sewing machines were also found in the back division, and a couple in Mr. Craig's division. 'Die fire was first discovered by a man in charge of some stables at the back and he gave the alanr and proceeded to get his horses through the right>of-way into the street. Meanwhile Constable Murphy rang the- Gray-street firebell, and being joined by Constable Arthur Skinner, the two officers went to the burning shop, and broke in the front door, being told that Mr. Craig occasionally slept on the premises, and gave the alarm in the rooms to which they could gain access. There was no response to their calls, and still later, the fire brigade, in suppressing the fire, had a second search. The property is said to be owned by Mrs. Pluinlev, of Hobson-strect, but nothing could be ascertained at that hour as to her insurances. Mr. Craig was said to live somewhere in Newton, and his insurances and those of Litheland could not be ascertained. Sergeant Treanor and a detachment of police were present on the ground.