RIVER BANK FIRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22877, 4 November 1937, Page 10

RIVER BANK FIRE

OUTBREAK AT HAMILTON GIRLS' HOSTEL ENDANGERED [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Wednesday A spectacular fire which broke out among the bamboo and thick scrub on the eastern bank of the Waikato River almost directly under the railway bridge shortly before four o'clock this afternoon endangered for a time portion of the girls' boarding establishment of the Hamilton High School. A strong breeze which was blowing at the time carried the fire along the bank in the direction of Fairfield Bridge.

Smoke swept across tho railway bridge, the footpath of which was soon filled with a crowd of spectators. Members of the Hamilton Fire Brigade were responsible for an efficient save, running hoses down tho bank and extinguishing the outbreak before it could spread to the boarding-houses. Telephone wires to the hostel- wero in danger when the flames three or four times leapt high in the air as they eaiight hold of a fresh clump of bamboo. The train to Cambridge, which left Hamilton station at 3.55 p.m., was delayed for several minutes 011 the western side of the bridge in-order to avoid risk of damage.

SMOULDERING RUBBISH

CITY BIUGADE CALLED Three engines from the Central Fire Station answered a call in Bank Street shortly after 10 o'clock last night. The

fire proved to be only a smouldering rubbish heap at the back of tho Grand Hotel, which had been extinguished by the hotel staff before the arrival of the brigade. It was not known who made the call to the fire station.