FIRES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19351, 11 December 1924, Page 9

FIRES.

BIG BLAZE IN AUCKLAND, '! ■JFf —— ' ,;;S BOARDINGHOUSE DESTROYED, ' OCCUPANTS’ NARROW ESCAPE. j TWO PRIVATE DWELLINGS BURNED' 1 (Psb United Peess Association.) > AUCKLAND, December 10. ; Twenty people sleeping in a boardings ' house at No. 4 Waiteroata* street, Poneonby, narrowly escaped suffocation when a firs broke out in the premises somewhere about 1 o’clock this morning, the outbreak completely destroying the house and practically ■ gutting the houses on either side. Thera were many thrilling moments, seven board- ” ers having to escape from the top storey by ", means of a lire escape which was in flamea -i before the last man got down, The house where the fire started was a

three-storied wooden building, with numerous little windows and turrets. The pro- •- prietor of the establishment was Mr Peddle, who, with his wife and several oocupants, slept on the ground floor. The rests of the boarders occupied rooms on the ' second and third floors, there being 20 apartments altogether. m About 1.15 a.m. Mr Edward MTHiiness, who occupied a room adjacent to the kitchen, was awakened by stifling flumes and smoke in his bedroom. Staggering to the , door, he discovered a mass of flames in the kitchen. The next moment he was rushing, from room to room, shouting “fire’’ ana shaking the sleeping occupants into consciousness, hut so firm jeu hold had the flames tbat they licked out of the kitchen, and up the stairs before the whole house- , hold nad been awakened. "ii Those on the ground and the first and second floors quickly snatched overcoats or, ■ [ wraps, and then had to run downstairs for ... r f their lives. By the time 'the people on the top -floor were roused there was but one. . way of escape for them, and that was t>y a ■ ~* ladder down the side of the house. There wore four young women and three young men in the rooms. Their time was so short that one, man had only time to throw, a pair of trousers out of the window. The women, were quickly assisted to the fire escape, but the shock was so severe that one of them , fainted and had to b© carried down the , ladder. , , , . So quickly did the fire spread throughout the house that before the last man had. * climbed down to safety the ladder was bewinning to burn, but everybody had got - dut of the building, which it was easy to ,j see was doomed. ■ , 4: A strong breeze from the sea fanned tna flames, which roared furiously os they,-eon-Burned the dry timber and furnishings, bed- ’• ding, and all the personal belongings of the : men, women, and children who were stand*:. ing shivering and fearful in the street. ~, Once everyone was clear of the . house Mr Johnston, one of the boarders, raced up , to the Ponsonby Post Ofßce, where ho rang the fire alarm. However,- a - lady • i boarder. Miss Brown, recollected that there was actually a fire alarm in thf street, ■' and she hurried to it, getting ner_call in *.' 10 seconds ahead of Mr Johnston. The brigade was summoned exactly 12 minutes after Mr M‘Guiness had discovered the out- ; break. . '

Even in the short space of 12 minutes, however, the fire had made tremendous progress, and the houses on each side of the boardinghouse'were well alight. Some erf the men rushed to the neighbours and gave the alarm. ■ In No. 6 Waitemata street lived Mr Albert Crow, his wife, his mother-in-law, and his niece. Their bedrooms faced the fire, and the windows were cracking and the woodwork burning when they jumped out of bed. There was but little time to put on a few clothes before the house waa well alight. However, several articles _of furniture were carried out of the, dining room before it was impossible to stay near the house. The motor garage went up in smoke in a few minutes, but by good luck the car was not there. The other house, which, was burning, was a new bungalow in the last, stages of completion. Rolls of wallpaper were lying in one of the rooms and the place would soon have been ready for occupation. The fire destroyed practically the whole house, although portion on the side further from the boardinghouse was not completely burned and the roof held. _ The neighbours were roused by the shivering boarders thundering at their doors. The occupants of “Merivale,” a good-sized house exactly opposite the partially-built bungalow, were alarmed by a woman’s screams and’the beating orfists on their front door. Mr and Mrs L. Blythe and Mrs Nelson, who occupied the nouse, hurried to the door. On opening it they found a woman lying on the verandah in a dead faint. They carried her indoors and placed her in safety. The boardinghouse was owned by Mr G. H Guy, and was insured for £2500, of which £I3OO was held in the London and Lancashire Office and £I2C O in the State Office. The furniture waa owned by the occupier, Mrs Peddy, and was insured for £560 in the New Zealand Office. The house on the east side of the boardinghouse which was burned was insured with the contents for £IO6O in the Sun Office, several hundreds below the actual loss The third house which waa destroyed was owned by Mr A. P. Young, being covered for £BSO in the Standard Office. This dwelling was not completed. INADEQUATE FIRE PROTECTION. DANGER OF BIG OUTBREAKS AUCKLAND SUPERINTENDENT’S COMPLAINT. (Pkb United Pbess Association.) , . AUCKLAND, December 10. A grave warning regarding the risk of fire spreading in the suburban areas of Auckland •; was given to-day by Superintendent Wilson, chief of the City Fire Brigade. This is not the first occasion on which the superintendent has spoken on the subject, but opportunity again to protest against the Inadequate water main in the residential areas has arisen as a result of the narrow escape that Ponsonby district had in the’ early hours of this morning when the Fire Brigade was nearly beaten by a fire that destroyed a 20-roomed boarding house and two adjacent homes. “When we got to the fire, said Superintendent Wilson, “the building was a seething mass of flames, and the houses on both sides were alight. The position was very serious, and we had a very anxious time. By sheer good fortune there was a vacant section directly opposite the burning boarding house. Had there been a house .there we would have had no chance in the world - of stopping the tire with the water avaiiable, and goodness knows where it would have ended.” . ’ ■, “A 4in mam is totally inadequate to deal with the conflagration,” continued Superintendent Wilson. ‘We can congratulate ourselves when we succeed in getting firps quickly under control, because in areas where there are wooden houses and only 4in mains wo might easily have a conflagration that would wipe out hundreds of houses. There is simply not a sufficient volume of water in the streets in the*- residential areas to enable the Fire Brigade to deal with B largo fire.