FIRES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3884, 21 August 1928, Page 27

FIRES.

OUTBREAK IN MEMORIAL HOME.

WELLINGTON, August 14.

The Levin Memorial Home for Children, at Berhampore, was the scene of an outbreak of fire early this morning. The premises were owned by the Wellington Ladies’ Christian Association. The kitchen and playroom, with their contents, were severely damaged, and two bedrooms suffered somewhat, also the dining room. The cause is unknown. The insurances are £3lOO on the building in the New Zealand office, and £5OO on the contents in the Atlas office. EARLY MORNING BLAZE. WELLINGTON, August 16. An unenviable task fell to the fire brigade at 4.30 this morning, when a fire broke out in a wooden building at 86 Taranaki street. The premises were practically unoccupied, there being only Cooper’s plumber’s shop on the first floor. The flames spread to the twostorey furniture factory of Reynard and Turner, 16 Ghuznee street, which, with its contents, was severely damaged. A portion of the building at the rear was totally destroyed, and the Foresters’ Arms Hotel was saved only by the strenuous efforts and the fact that a brick wall intervened. The occupants of the hotel made a hurried exit, but the place was only scorched and damaged by water. An unoccupied wooden cottage at the rear, in Egmont street, was damaged by fire and water, as also was the workshop of Aldred and Griffiths, sheet metal workers. On the other side of the premises where the fire originated were the premises of Hill and Jackson, painters and paperhangers. The contents of the building aid not suffer, a concrete wall effectually preventing the fire from taking hold. The buildings are all old wooden ones, which were to have been demolished in the near ■ future. - The damage has not yet been estimated with certainty. The cause is attributed to vagrants sleeping in the unoccupied portion of the building, where the fire was discovered.