NO WATER TO FIGHT FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21876, 11 August 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

NO WATER TO FIGHT FIRE

EIGHTY HELPLESS MEN GUTTING OF FINE MANSION Sixty men from fh-e fire brigades and 20 Air Force men had to stand by while fire gutted Fring Hall, one of the show mansions of West Norfolk, a few weeks agoOnly a few hundred gallons of water were available owing to the drought. When the supply was exhausted the fire fighting had to stop. All the jewellery and silver were recovered and placed in a cell at the Dorking police station. So intense were the flames that by 4 a.m. only the walls were left standing, and some of them were cracked. The roof and two wings had gone, and the fine old mansion of about 60 rooms was little more than a blackened ruin.

The hall is the home of the Hon. Somerset Arthur Maxwell, only son of Lord Farnham, and prospective Conservative candidate for tho King's Lynn division seat in the House of Commons. " Mr. Maxwell, I believe, took over tho mansion about four months ago," a resident said on tho day of the fire, " but only returned to it yesterday to a party meeting promoted .by Viscountess Downe at Hillington. Ho worked in his shirt sleeves doing all he could to help the firemen. " The main sources of water supply apparently were a well in the grounds and some storage tanks. Only a few hoses could be used." Mr. Maxwell and his wife had arrived from London about an hour before the fire broke out. Most of the downstairs furniture and somo from the bedrooms was saved.

The spectacular blaze could be seen for many miles, and the roads were full of motorists who had come to watch.