DESTRUCTIVE FIRES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6382, 3 December 1907, Page 5

DESTRUCTIVE FIRES

THE NIELBOURNE DISASTER.

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright MELBOURNE, December 2.

The fire in Clark’s and Wallach’s warehouses on Saturday night raged for hours, and threatened to demolish the whole block bounded by Elizabeth, Lonsdale, Swanston, and Little Bourke streets.

The outbreak started in a blind alley among a great pile of packing cases and straw packed up against the rear portion of Clark and Co.’s warehouse.

Floor after floor of the warehouse gave way> and the fire defied the efforts of the brigade for some hours.

When Clark’s was a mass of fire, and the blaze had steered northward, a great crest of flame swept over to the money order office in the post office block.

The walls of Clark’s fell, and the small shops beneath became a mass of rod-hit bricks and blazing timber. With this crash went the relics of early Melbourne. These shops, which cracked like egg-shells, were built in ISI4.

The wind fortunately changed to the south, and the pressure on the post office was relieved. , The more serious results of the fire were confined to Clark’s and Wallach’s building, where postal material was stored.

HOSPITAL IN DANGER.

LATEST ESTIMATE OF DAMAGE.

(Received December 3, 0.25 a.m.) MELBOURNE, December 2 The hospital was. in grave danger for some time, but a force of artillerymen quenched the burning particles as they fell on the buildings. At one time the window screens of the operating theatre were on fire. An amended estimate of tho loss places the amount approximately at £IOO.OOO. The Federal Government had no insurance on the post and telegraph office buildings and material. SUBURBAN SHOPS BURNED. MELBOURNE, December 2. , A . block of tight two-storied shops was destroyed by fire in West Melbourne.