FIRE ON LAMBTON-QUAY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 813, 30 September 1887, Page 20

FIRE ON LAMBTON-QUAY.

At fifteen minutes past 1 o’clock yesterday morning an alarm of fire was given by the city fire bells. The fire, which proved to be at Mr I. D. Mandel’s tobacconist shop, on Lambton-quay, was first discovered by Mr Harry Gribbon, a member of the Mohawk Minstrels, who with a friend happened to be passing the shop at the time. He noticed a volume of smoke issuing from the upstairs windows, and as he thought he saw someone struggling at the front door he forced it iu. He then rushed across to the Police Station and gave the alarm, and they rang up the Manners - street Station. While these measures were being taken, Mr Tippler who occupies the premises next door, was aroused, and he at once got a small hose to play on the fire, which was in a cupboard underneath a staircase in a room behind the shop, with the result that the flames were extinguished before the Brigade, who were a considerable time in reaching the scene of the fire, arrived. Mr Mandel, who, with a shop boy, sleeps on the preraises, stateß that he was awakened by the boy coughing and by a sense of suffocation from the smoke which was coming up the staircase. He at once aroused the boy, and they made their escape through the front window, getting on to the verandah, and thence to the ground. The fire was confined to a cupboard just beneath the staircase, and Mr Mandel is quite at a loss to account for its origin. The stock and fittings are insured in the Liverpool, London and Globe office for about £3OO. The damage done is not very serious. The building, which is a brick one, is owned by Mr Jacob Joseph. Had it not been for Mr Tippler’s promptitude, it is probable that a serious fire would have occurred.