BIG BLAZE

Southland Times, Issue 20147, 6 April 1927, Page 6

BIG BLAZE

TERRACE ON FIRE SPECTACULAR OUTBREAK IN WELLINGTON BRIGADE HAS STRENUOUS TASK (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 5. Hundreds of people watched one of the most spectacular blazes that has been seen in Wellington for a long time when shortly after noon to-day, two houses on the terrace at the upper end of Abel Smith street were burnt to the ground a third was burned out and a fourth was damaged by fire, smoke and water.

The houses and the damage are:— No. 175 Abel Smith Street, a thirteenroomed unoccupied house belonging to A. Spiro, of Wellington. It was totally destroy-

No. 178 Abel Smith Street, seven-roomed house owned and occupied by A. C. Geddis, which with its contents was totally destroyed. Both house and contents were insured. No. 180 Abel Smith Street, six-roomed house owned and occupied by Mr Ambury. House was burned out and almost all furniture lost. It was insured and contents were covered by policy for £lBO in the State Office.

No. 182 Abel Smith Street, four-roomed house owned and occupied by W. Wearne. One of the walls was badly damaged and further loss was suffered through smoke and water. Wearne has a policy for £6OO on the house and £2OO on the furniture.

All four houses W’ere in a row, Spiro’s being situated on the side of a hill almost at the top of flights of steps which lead from upper Abel Smith Street to the Terrace. The other three are on the hill to the west.

The flames were leaping through the roof of Spiro’s house when the brigade arrived on the scene at about mid-day in response to a call given by Mrs Phillips, who with her husband was living with Mrs Ambury at No. 180. The house of two stories was a mass of flames. The brigade realising the futility of attempting to save it had to confine its efforts to attempting to check the spread of the fire. Two leads of hose were run round the back of the building between it and the Terrace Infants’ School and another was directed on to the fire from the top of the steps. Fanned by a steady southerly, the flames soon bridged the gulf between the large wooden structure in which the outbreak started and Geddis’s home and this, already badly scorched by the intense heat, soon burst into flames. Despite the strenuous efforts of the brigade little or nothing could be done to prevent the second house, which was also of wood, from becoming a total loss. Even the furniture could not be removed so quickly did the place burn. All the time the fire fighters were handicapped by the great heat. Only a few feet separated Geddis’s house from that of Ambury and despite great volumes of water being poured on to the flames, the fire could not be prevented from crossing the second gap. Little or no furniture could be removed before the fire had secured a good hold and practically nothing but the framework skeleton with badly burned weatherboards still left in places, now remains. Bands of workers had been busy in the meantime removing the furniture from the next three houses but by this time the fire was well checked. Had it not been for the splendid work of the brigade, which was using the new Wembley engine for pumping, three structures which are all of wood separated from one another by but a few feet, might easily have gone. As it was, the south wall of Wearne’s place, which is next to Ambury’s, was badly burned and the flames had already got through to the kitchen when the fire was mastered. Smoke and water caused minor damage but all the furniture had been got to safety. So intense was the heat that the windows of the school which is of brick, were cracked. The building suffered no other damage. How the outbreak occurred is a mystery. Spiro’s house, which contained no furniture, having been unoccupied for nearly a year. Before that it had been used as a boarding house.