SUSPICIOUS FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21225, 4 July 1932, Page 8

SUSPICIOUS FIRE.

TOLAGA BAY AGAIN.

GENERAL STORE DESTROYED,

EARLY MORNING OUTBREAK,

THIRD WITHIN FORTNIGHT [by telegraph, own CORRESPONDENT.] GISBORNE, Saturday. Abcut 3.30 o'clock this morning anothe* of Tolaga Bay's general stores was burned to th ß ground, making the third l arßß fire in the township within a fortnight leaving only six shops on one side of the main street, where 14 used to gtand This time the ill-fated building was '» generz.l store owned iby Mr. W. A.- Tul lock, of Mount Eden, Auckland. It had been occupied ever since it was built 22 years ago by Mr. J. D. G. Thornton.

The store, together with all the stock, except a small quantity in a shed at tha back, is a total loss.

Mr. Thornton and other workers in tha shop left at the usual time lasli nigßfi leaving everything in order and when" Mr. G. McCreedy passed the store at three o'clock on his way to his bakehouse there was no sign of anything amiss. About 3.30 a near by resident was awakened by the glare and noise of tha fire, which was then raging fiercely at tha right hand front corner of the store, where there was a window which had contained a display of drapery and kapok mattresses. It was too late to make any attempt to sava the building, and at 4 a.m.' it waj reduced to a smouldering mass of wreckage.

The safe, which had been in the fronti office, fell into one of the windows and was not subjected to great heat so that its contents, £3O in cash and Mr. Thornton's were not damaged. The stock was insured for £ISOO in ths National office. • t The building was insured by the owner, but details are -not available.'

There is nothing in. the circumstancej to explain the cause of the outbreak, and coming so soon after other fires seriom suspicions have been aroused.

A large block of shops and a billiard® saloon in the main street of Tolaga Bay were destroyed by fire early on Sunday morning, June 19. The insurances on tho buildings involved amounted to over £SOOO. Another fire occurred shortly after midnight on the following Tuesday, when ii, hotel of 40 rooms was demolished together with the contents, including larga stocks of liquor. Tho insurances totalled £6IOO.