FIRES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 30

FIRES.

OUTBREAK AT TAKAKA. NELSON, February 24. Tabaka, at an early hour this morning, experienced tho biggest fire in its history. It commenced in A. E. Manners’s draper’s shop, and spread to Emm’s stables, F. Lewis’s butcher’s shop, and to courthouse. Then came the fire brigade station, which was demolished with axes, and its roof used against J. B Beattie’s tobacconist’s shop, the building adjoining. A space was then cleared, and this prevented the fire from spreading further. On the opposite side of the street the Junction Hotel was badly scorched, and actually caught in places, but the flames were subdued by the use of a hand hose. The shops adjoining, owned by Misses Edgar and Daisy Goodwin, also had their fronts badly scorched. A fair breeze was blowing from the south, and, had not the fire been checked by the demolition f the fire station, it is considered almost certain that it would have swept most of the town on both sides of the road. The estimated loss caused by the fire runs into between £6OOO and £7OOO. The insurances available are: Emm’s stables, £600; A. E. Manners. £350 on stock, £4OO on building, household £450 ; A. F. Lewis, £400; Warner £IOO. RACING STABLES DESTROYED. WELLINGTON, February 27. The racing stubles at Trentham, owned by Mr H. Telford, were totally destroyed by fire at an earlv hour this morning. Fortunately the stables were unoccupied, as Mr Telford and the boys and horses :<re at Blenheim. Very little was saved. The insurances are not available. MAIL DESTROYED. WELLINGTON, February 27. The Secretary of the General Post Office advises that 172 bags of nowspapers from Australian offices, 48 bags of parcels from Australia, and 76 bags of parcels from Grout Britain for Wellington and southern offices, which were received at Auckland on February 23, ex tho Ulimaroa, wero destroyed by fire in a railway wagon at Waiouru on Thursday night. The cause of tho fire is unknown.