FIRE AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16283, 17 July 1916, Page 4

FIRE AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

— -•- i EXTENSIVE DAMAGE. < i LOSS PROBABLY £4000. l i FLAMES DRIVEN BY GALE. ' i WESTERN" PORTION" GUTTED. ] _ i GOOD WORK BY BRIGADE. I Damage estimated at upwards of £4000 ' ! was caused by fire in Government House .on Saturday evening. The fire originated in the upper storey, and eight rooms and I two corridors were gutted, while several ! other rooms were seriously damaged. ; Shortly after the fire was discovered, His I Excellency the Governor, who is in Wei- j lington, was informed by telephone of the J'■ outbreak. i The alarm was received by the city fire ! brigade at 7.20 p.m. The first person to j discover the outbreak was apparently Mr. JT. F. Tester, of the city traffic department, who noticed smoke and flames as he was walking along Waterloo Quadrant His shout of the alarm was heard by one of the Northern Club attendants, and the latter immediately summoned the brigade by means of a call-box. Before the brigade left the station the call was confirmed by telephone. Alarm by Passer-by. Evidently the fire had been in progress for some time, and had been hidden by the trees in the grounds, for when the brigade arrived it had gained a strong hold, and soon afterwards broke through the roof. A violent gale from the northeast was blowing, and it was obvious that the task before the brigade was one of considerable difficulty. The efficiency of the brigade was again demonstrated by the manner in which it dealt with the fire, and its success in confining it to one portion of the building. Entrance was gained by forcing the doors of the building, and water was drawn from two hydrants in the grounds and from others in the adjoining streets. The operations were directed by Superintendent Woolley and Deputy-Superintendent Wilson, with a i force of 16 men. The fire was attacked I from the northern and western sides and j the south-eastern end of the building, 1 seven leads of hose being employed. | An Impressive Spectacle. The fire formed for some time an im- ; pressive spectacle. At the outset two fire- ; men were stationed on the parapet of the '< northern wall, and from that point turned a stream of water into the fire breaking : through the roof in flames high above their i heads. They were afterwards withdrawn ; to a lower level, most of the work being i done from the fire secape running along I the face of the building. Afterwards the ■ hoses were carried into the building, and j the flames were driven back. The progress of the tire was checked almost immediately, though the force of the gale made it difficult to stem the rush of flames that swept the western wing. Fire Quickly Subdued. By eight o'clock, it seemed that the whole of the upper storey was enveloped jin / flames, though actually there was very little firo eastward of the central block and on the other side the destrucI tion had already been checked. At many | points along the parapet flames broke | through the wall, and great masses of smoke and flame poured from the blazing timbers of the roof. The brigade worked valiantly, meeting many difficulties with, unfailing resource, so that within an hour and a-half after its arrival it had practic- ] ally finished its work. A few men were j left to search out the last smouldering I embers, and by 11 p.m. there was no sign of live tire to be found. Valuable service was rendered by a large j furce of police, directed by Superintendent j Kiely and Inspector Sheehan, in salvaging ! a large quantity of furniture from the ] ground floor. They were assisted by a I number of civilians, until in view of the ! possible risk from falling timbers, Superintendent Kiely directed that only men in uniform should enter the building. The diningroom was stripped of its furnishings, and these were afterwards stored in the stabies. I Damage Very Extensive. The extent of the damage to the building was ascertained by an inspection i yesterday morning. The front portion of j the upper storey comprises six rooms, and •at either end there is a wing at right j angles to the main structure, the eastern j wing comprising three rooms and the western four rooms. There are also several bathrooms and other offices. The prinI cipal staircase rises to- the first floor in the middle of the building, and there are secondary staircases entering each wing. lln the centre of the block is Her Excellency's bedroom ; next to it His Excellency's dressingroom, and adjoining the latter, the guest chamber, known a* ' Sir lan Hamilton's room since the general's visit in 1914. The western wing comprises the housekeeper's, the butler's and two other rooms. In the eastern portion of the upper storey there are a dressingroom and two other guest chambers. Origin of the Outbreak. Appearances indicate that the fire originated in the immediate vicinity of Sir I lan Hamilton's room, but at this spot j the destruction has been so complete that lit is probably impossible to determine I whether the outbreak commenced in the j corridor, the roof, or the bedroom. From j the point of origin the fire spread back j through the private vice-regal apartments, j and down the main staircase. Driven by the wind, it enveloped the eastern wine, destroying three of th four rooms, and also broke through into the lower floor, gutting the private secretary's office, and considerably damaging His Excellency's ; private office, on the right and left rei spectively of the entrance corridor, and j swept through the corridor to the main j hall. I The greater part of the roof structure J over the main portion of the building has ' been destroyed. A large portion of the , timber framework was completely coni sumed, but the remainder still retained : sufficient strength to support the crippled . mass, and actually no nart of the ; roof fell in. Sir lan Hamilton's room I and the adjoining part of the corridor j wa a burned out, only the stouter portions I of a few articles of furniture remaining. The destruction in Their Excellencies" rooms was hardly so complete, though the wooden linings of the walls and the ceilings were burned. Interest will attach to the fact that the Duke of Edinburgh's bed, made doubly famous by the protest of .Mr. A. E. Glover against the removal from Auckland of this historic piece of carved kauri, escaped almost without injury. It was landing in the dressingroom of His Excellency, and the singeing of the varniih will be easily repaired

The dressing-room and the other two bedrooms eastward of the vice-regal apartments vere damaged considerably, the for r ".narking the limits of the direct from the flames. The housekc.,i - s and the butler's rooms in the wesu>n wing were practically destroyed, though the main walls are still standing, while the staircase rising between them was rcdned to a mass of charred timber. The actt <J damage to the flooring of the upper storey has not been very serious, and at no point in the portion of the building most affected is there any perceptible weakness in this r>art of the structure. State of the Ground Floor. The fire swept down the main stairway, ; gutting the hall, and destroying its furni- i ture. Evidently it was also driven down ! the stairway of the western "wing. The i two masses of flame accounted for the i internal damage in the connecting corridor, and for the gutting of the private ■ secretary's room. His Excellency's" offiYe did not suffer so severely, the furniture . stacked in the middle of the room being hardly scorched. The entrance to the ballroom was slightly injured by smoke. ; but the ballroom, a separate building, was not damaged. Beneath the centre of the fire the drawingroom is situated, the other portion of the ground floor comprising the diningroom. Neither of these apartments was greatly damaged by tire, though the ceiling of the drawingroom was burned through in one corner. They were flooded with water, and yesterday morning water was still pouring down from the rooms above. All the drawingroom furniture was stacked in the middle of the room, and was not damaged. The diningroom furniture was removed while the fixe was in progress. Other portions of the building, including the servants' quarters, were notaffected by either fire or water. Cause Not Ascertained. Much speculation ha? not arrived at any convincing explanation of the outbreak. Mr. S. Bond, who has been caretaker at Government House during the past 10 years, stated yesterday that he examined the whole of the building at 11.45 a.m. on Saturday, and walked all round it at 4.15 p.m. He had no knowledge of the fire until the police called him some time after the arrival of the fire brigade. Mr. Bond said that so far as he knew only he and Mrs. Bond had entered the house during the past few days. Xo one else had been about since the beginning of the week, when plumbers employed by the Public. Works Department were engaged in repairing a leaking service. No one has been living in the house, the caretaker occupying a cottage some distance from the main building. The Previous Outbreak. When the outbreak occurred in 1914 it was suggested that it had been caused by a fault in the electric lighting service, but that suggestion was discounted by the report of the city electrical engineer, who stated that all the circuits were afterwards found to be intact. The wiring throughout the building is carried in iron conduits, and has been the subject of special attention since the previous alarm. Another theory on that occasion was that the fire had been caused by embers falling through a faulty hearth, but on this occasion no such suggestion is feasible, as fires have not been used for some time. Since it is Crown property Government House is not protected against fire loss by the usual method of insurance. On a fewoccasions arrangements were made bv Lord Ranfurly and Lord Islington for the insurance of the building when it was being used for special functions. A proposal was made by the Minister for Finance four years ago that a special fund should be created for the insurance of public buildings, but the scheme has not been brought into operation. The previous fire in Government House occurred on May 14. 1914. An outbreak was discovered a few minutes before nine o'clock, when Their Excellencies the Governor and the Countess of Liverpool, -with their guests. Sir lan Hamilton and Cap tain Foljambe, and the members of the vice-regal staff, had just sat down to breakfast. The fire originated below the flooring of Sir lan Hamilton's room, above the drawingroom. Within a quarter of an hour the fire was extinguished, but the western wing of the building was flooded with water. The structural damage was not extensive, the vote provided in the Supplementary Estimates for the restoration of the building being £450. History of Government House. The original Government House in Auckland was erected in the " forties," about the time Sir George Grey entered upon his first term a? Governor. This building was destroyed by aire about 1850. while occupied by Sir George Grey. The second building was commenced in 1854, and completed about the end of 1855. the first Governor to occupv it being Colonel Gore Brown. Since then it has been occupied at varying periods by every succeeding Governor. Amongst other notable persons who have been guest* at Government House was the late Duke of Edinburgh, who was there as a guest of Sir James Ferguson, nearly 150 years ago. The Duke then planted a . Kauri tree in the grounds. This tree may now be seen from Waterloo Quadrant.