The Dee Street Fire.

Southland Times, Issue 9026, 30 September 1885, Page 3

The Dee Street Fire.

■ ■--■'. V;^ ; - O" !/n '- /'♦ ' ; ;'~; ■.;. ■-/■ * The. fire^* by which^ the Carriers' Arms AHoteV-was > destroyed yesterday morning s '„- was first noticed from the street. Jay .Constable Mclntyre, although prior to that Mr • Hughes, awakened, by the pattering of > -■ i. lain drops on the roof , had discovered the stable to be on fire, and had roused some of the boarders. Mr Hughes was in tbe '■table where ithe fire originated about 1 •.in., when everything appeared to be safe. .'.■■' He can form no idea as tohow the fire originated. During the conflagration, and; before the flames^ had obtained complete possession of the building, Constables Mcirityre arid "^ Mcliean worked very hard, and at considerable risk, to cave gome of the property, but, unfortunate^', o iM: quantity of the furniture they, got out was left too near the burning building, caught fire, and was consumed. Two of the horses' destroyed belonged to Mr A. , McGill Brown and the othe»- two had been , the property of the late Hugh Duddy. iV^ .The buildings belonged to Mr j. Mitchejl, - 'formerly of New River Ferry, but at present in Scotland. One of tho boarders in the hotel states that he lost L9O in notes, the money having been in one of ;■;; his -trousers pockets. He was hurried, and necessarily so, out of bis room and the hotel by a constable, and subsequently his trousers were handed to him by one of the crowd standing on the street. He cays that he immediately searched the pockets and found that the sum named had disappeared, while five single notes which were in tho other pocket were-all right. The insurances were as follows :— Hotel, LBOO in the Liverpool, London and Globe office ; stable, L2GO in tbe Norwich Union ; stock and furniture (including billiard table), L 350 in the New Zealand and L 350 in the Colonial ; total, LI7OO. The empty shop destroyed was uninsured. The man in charge of the steam tire engine, Mr K. Reid, states that he had lOOibs of steam up within nine minutes from the first sound of the bell, but that some delay was caused through the fractiousness of the hose, and in running out the hose, of which a considerable length was required.