FIRES IN AUCKLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19584, 14 September 1925, Page 10

FIRES IN AUCKLAND.

WEEK-END OUTBREAKS. THREE IN QUEEN STREET. (Per United Pbess Association.) AUCKLAND. September 13. Two fires occurred in Queen street yesterday afternoon, good work by the brigade minimising the damage on each occasion. The first fire was in the Commercial Bank, a stone building, the outbreak originating in the retiring room at the end of the passage on the second floor. The caretaker had been engaged in cleaning the bank office on the. first floor, and was attracted by the > smell of smoke. Four rooms at the seat of the outbreak were badly damaged, the retiring r com being gutted, while the adjoining office of Mr Ruddock, sharebroker, was damaged by fire and water. The third floor offices were endangered, but the brigade obtained control in time. The second outbreak occurred a couple of hours later in the wooden promises right opposite the Commercial Bank. The fire started in a passage outside the offices of Messrs Bennett and Jacobsen, solicitors, on the first floor. The rooms adjoining the passage were damaged by fire and water, and some goods in Hugh Wright’s establishment on the ground floor were damaged by water. The brigade made a brilliant save, for had the fire got beyond control the other wooden buildings on both sides would probably have been destorevO. A more serious fire occurred in His Majesty’s Arcade, Queen street, at halfpast 12 this morning. It is understood_ that it originated near the lavatories adjoining the Chess Club rooms. The top floor of the Chess Club’s rooms was completely destroyed, with its equipment, together with the rooms occupied bv Captain Cliffe (teacher of navigation) and Messrs Davis and Rogers, engravers. About £IOOO worth of damage was done by water to the Masonic Institute and Club, which occupies the two lower floors. In snito of the suspicious naturo of the first there is no evidence of incendiarism, although inquiries have been made by the police. There was a fourth fire in Fort street yesterday, though it was only a trivia' one.