FIRES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 32, 20 January 1912, Page 3

FIRES.

(Per Press Association.) Auckland, January 18. Moffatt’s general store at Opar'au was burned down this morning, nothing being saved. The owner is a heavy loser. It is believed both stock and store have small insurances in the State Office. The building was unoccupied at the time of the outbreak. Gisborne, January 19. Taylor and Mclntosh’s timber mill at Mangaone Valley, (Nullaka, was destroyed by fire. Some bush near by was being burned when the fire got out of hand and swept clean everything connected with the mill.

Shortly before ten o’clock on Wednesday morning a lire broke out in the roof of the office of the West Coast .Refrigerating Company, and, but for its timely discovery, would in all probability have resulted in the destruction of the whole buildings (reports the “Patea Press”). Mr I. Thompson, accountant to the company, was working in the office at the time, and was disturbed by a crackling sound from overhead. He immediately investigated the cause of it, and found that the apex of the gable was on fire. Ho thereupon gave the alarm. The lire brigade wore quickly assembled and made for the fire. In the meantime the hands at the Grading Works and the railway ifficials set to work with the railway (ire buckets, which were hanging in the station filled with water. They ,vero handed up to the men who had mounted the roof, and quickly quenchid the flames. Though the actual fire was slight and the damage almost nil, it was a very close call, and few realised at the time the tremendous possibilities with which the outbreak was fraught. The cause of the outbreak is attributed to a spark from the engine-house chimney becoming lodged in the gable. There were in the works roughly 5000 cases of choose and 4000 boxes of butter. Reckoning the former at £4 per case and the latter at £2 15s per box, the stock alone, which might have been jeopardised, amounted to £OI,OOO.