DWELLINGS BURNED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21280, 6 September 1932, Page 8

DWELLINGS BURNED

ESCAPE IN NIGHT ATTIRE SUM OF £4O IN CASH LOST [by telegraph—press association] DUNEDIN, Monday A four-roomed house at Fairfield occupied by Mr. George Ross, a butcher, was practically destroyed by fire yesterday morning. Mr. Ross and family just escaped in their night apparel. A sum of £4O kept over Sunday for banking was lost with other effects. POWER LINES CAUSE EXPLOSION FIREMEN'S LUCKY ESCAPE [by telegraph OWN correspondent] DUNEDIN, Monday Fire gutted a two-storeyed shop and seven-roomed dwelling at Woodhaugh, a suburb of Dunedin, early on Sunday morning. Mr. F. Drake, the owner and occupier, found the fire fiercely burning in the kitchen. The escape of himself and the members of his family was impossible by the stairway. With difficulty he lowered the members of the family from a top window and then dropped himself to safety. Almost as soon as the fire brigade engaged the fire, high tension wires, carrying current from a converter station, fell across the building, and a terrific explosion followed, in which a hot water circulator was blown through the roof. It landed on the roadway among the firemen, who luckily escaped injury. To make matters worse, the water supply suddenly failed, with the result that the firemen were powerless to do anything. HOUSE TOTALLY DESTROYED ABSENCE OF THE OCCUPANTS [by telegraph—OWN CORRESPONDENT] MORRINSVILLE, Monday A six-roomed house, owned and occupied by Mr. M. T. Coleman, sit Mangateparu, was totally destroyed by fire yestorday. Nothing was saved. Mr. Coleman and his family were in Hamilton at the time visiting Mrs. Coleman, who is in hospital. Fiighteen months ago fire destroyed Mr. Coleman's cowsheds.