The Geraldine Fire.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 6849, 26 March 1897, Page 2

The Geraldine Fire.

(by tslegraph.) Timakij, March 25. At the Magisterial inquiry into the late fire at Geraidine, Webber deposed that he purchased the stock for L 934 at 12s in the £ cash, and began business on the 25r,h February. He was covered for LIOCIO by insurance. He returned to the shop in the evening, and lit two lamps, one in the shop and one in the office. He was carrying a lamp from the office to the drapery side of the shop when the hanging loop came out. The lamp fell, and the oil ran over the floor. The wick ignited the dust curtain over the drapery shelves. He tried in vain to put out the fire. He had nothing to smother it with, and put out the other lamp and ran out to give the alarm. He met two men outside and asked them to ring the bell, and then called the neighbors. One neighbor staled that Webber was smoking when he called him.

The principal witness was Robert Hy. Pearpoint, merchant, who deposed that hearing the firebell ring he and his family went to the gate to see whereabout it was, when in a fow minutes Mr Webber approached and said " the store is on fire." Witness said, "Come back with me at once, then," and with his son and Mr Webber ran to the store, and requested Mr Borrows to get buckets and water. Mr Webber was nervous and excited, and said he was too shaky to open the door, so witness did it for him. Upon entering the shop witness saw a fire on the stand of fancy goods to' the right of the door. His son handed him a bucket of water, which he threw on the fire and practically extinguished it. Previous to throwing the water witness said to Mr Webber "there is another fire down in the corner near the office," where the curtain was burning up about as high as two feet or three feet above the counter. The curtain wa3 about 36 feet long, and was still hanging unburned, and there was no other fire but at the curtain near the office and on the stand near the door. Upon drawing Mr Webber's attention to the fire near the office, he said, "Don't go too far; you will get suffocated." At this time Mr Webber was inside the store with witness, and there was plenty of room for a dogen people to come in. Witness tvenfc out to get another bucket of water, when Mr Webber banged the door to and ran down the road. Witness called him, and he said he was going to help the engine up. If witness could have opened the door he could undoubtedly have put the fire out with the help of those present. By Mr Raymond : The stock as a whole was a good one, and quite saleable, excepting that the sizes of clothing were not saleable sizes, as complained of by Mr Webber. The Rochester lamps had been in use for some time. Witness had onca dropped one through picking it up by the top, bufc it went out at once. Witness had only carried it about a foot. If the top was out of the groove it would be impossible to carry the lamp, but the lamp would no doubt fall if the top shifted out of the groove when carrying it. He considered that Cook and Gray made a fairly satisfactory sale of the stock to Webber. The jury found that the fire was wilfully caused by Webbei", who was arrested, and was remanded till Tuesday. j