FIRES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1264, 21 May 1896, Page 33

FIRES.

A WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH

A must lamentable accident occurred last wool; to Mrs Lucy Williams, wife of ft labouring mail at Duck Creek, Bluff road, Southland.

She was cooking at an open lire, and as she reached up to hang a pan her skirt took fire, and she was immediately in a blaze.

The children ran out screaming, and attracted the attention of the father, who was working some distance away. When lie reached the house 1m found his wife oil her hands and knees injured frightfully, and her clothing burnt oil. She died shortly afterwards.

The poor woman was only 3ti, and leaves a family of lft.

A firo was discovered early on Thursday at tho Wellington Biscuit and Confectionery Company’s premises in Parish street by Sergeant O’Malley and Constable Poland, who gave the alarm, but before tho flames could he subdued the back portion of t he building was gutted. Tho lire also diil some damage to the adjoining''building— Hudson and Co.’s, confectioners. The biscuit factory is owned by Messrs Bowden Bros. Nothing i 3 known as to the origin of the lire. Tho overseer, Mr 11. I!. Marray, who was working the previous night till half-past 9, when lie left everything appeared sate.

The following arc tho insurances : Building, .£501) in the Royal Exohungo; stock, valued at £I3OO and totally destroyed, ,£3OO in tho National (half ro-insured in the North German), £l7O in the Northern, £SO in tho Phomix—total, .£520; machinery, including a lozenge-making machine wliHi cost between £IOO and .£ 100, and was destroyed, it 120 in the Now Zealand, 2C150 i» the Phomix, .£BO in the Northern—total, £BSO. Total amount of insurances, £lß7ll. Messrs llowdon Bros, are heavy losers, as tho property was insured for only about one-third of its value. A four-rooined house, situated in Nairn street and owned by Mr K. Burch, of the Union Steam Miip Company’s stall', was gutted hy firo shortly before noon on May 13. The house was occupied by Mr Charles Fox, painter, who was away at work at the timo. Mrs Fox, who had liven nursing a child suffering from bronchitis, had gone out for a low minutes. A fire had been kept alight m the front room for some days in couscquenco of the illness of tho child, and it is supposed a spark from this caught some underclothing which had boon hung in front of it. Tho Brigado was quickly on the scene, and succeeded in getting the flames under. Very little of the contents was saved, except a sewing machine. The furniture, which included a piano, was insured in the Victoria olliee for £BO. Tho building was insured in tho Phomix office for £IOO.

The following was sent from our Hastings correspondent under date May 17: Just before noor to-day a fire was discovered in the boiler-house at B. L. Knight’s premises at the railway crossing, in the very centre of the township. Tho manual ongino was got to work very quickly, and a few minutes afterwards the steam engine was pouring half a dozen jets of water into the building. The tire when first discovered was near the fire box of the engine ; it was a very small affair, and appeared to lie the result of a spark, in an incredibly short spaco of time, however, the fire spread to a building which was piled many feet high with mouldings and similar lines of building timber, everything being of a most inflammable nature. From here it reached a twoistory building in which there were a dozen or more woodworking machines for carrying out the making of every thing used by builders. The (lames, however, wero at length subdued. In the building wero mauy hundreds of pounds’ worth of sashes, doors and architraves, and stacked close to the buildings were millions of foot of timber* and the brigade saved the whole [of this, besides preventing the total destruction of many of the machines. The frame of the building is still standing, and had it boon oi wood instead of iron there would not have been half the damage done.

There was no insurance whatever on any of

tho property destroyed, and Mr Knight estimates his loss at about .£2OOO. Quite another £2OOO worth has boon saved by the Fire Brigade. The Rangiora Dairy Factory, worked by Newman aud Andersen, was destroyed by fire at 2 o’clock on Monday. The plant, which was valued at £SOO, was insured for £375 in tho Royal office, and of this amount .£125 was on the engine, which was in a separate building and not injured. The building, which was tho property of John Manning, of Balcairn, was insured for ,£l5O in tho Commercial Union office.