THREE FIRES IN DUNEDIN,

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 759, 31 January 1865, Page 3

THREE FIRES IN DUNEDIN,

LOSS OF £18,000.

MAN BURNED TO DEATH,

NARROW ESCAPES FROM DEATH,

The Otago Daily Times of 24th January, contains an account of a destructive fire which occurred in Princes-street, Dunedin, on the morning of that day. For calamitous extent this fire ' is second only to the disastrous fire in Staffordstreet :—■ The fire originated at the hack of the Exchange Hotel, which stood on the easterly side of Princtsetreef, almost midway between the Bank of New Zealand and the corner of Dowling-street. The inmates of the hotel had to jump out of their beds and scramble from the front windows almost naked, their night clollies being severely burned. The flames soon spread from the hotel to the premises of the Bunk of Otago, which was completely gutted, and the Medical Hall of Wilkinson and Co. was shortly wrapped in fire. Messrs. Stan ford and Co.'s shop became the victim after that of Messrs. Wilkinson and Co., but most of the kerosene had been got out, as well as other portions of the stock. The premises of Mr. J. Mackay, printer and bookseller; Messrs. Ferguson and Mitchell, engravers, printers, and stationers; Messrs. Gillies and Street, surveyors and land agents; and Messrs. Evans and Kenelly, house and estate agents —all these, fronting Princesstreet, were soon caught and destroyed by the flames. We learn that the Bank of Otago is fully insured in different offices for about £3300. The origin of the fire is unknown. The five spread rapidly towards the harbor. In this direction was the old Presbyterian Church, converted for the

time being into a, wool store. In this building had been placed, only the same morning, two hundred and fifty bales of wool, belonging to Messrs. MLandress, Hepburn, and Co. The building could not be saved, but two hundred bales of the wool were got out. A number of tenements stretching ,back from Princes-street were also burned. The conduct of the Fire Brigade says the Times was beyond all praise. One of the volunteers, while directing a jet of water on the hotel, had the back part of his helmet curled up with the heat, and another had the clothes on his back all but burning. The same happened with another volunteer. Nor were other instances of personal bravery wanting, for on no previous occasion have such earnest efforts been made by the bystanders to save the adjoining property. The following is a list of the property destroyed: —Bank of Otago; Exchange Hotel (Sheehan's) ; Paris and London Restaurant; John Fai'uie, general merchant; James Robertson, grocer; Wilkinson and Dixon, Medical Hall. At the rear, Butement Brothers, cordial manufacturers; Stephen and Laing, commission agents ; and Mackay and Co., printers. Stanford and Co., kerosene and sewing machine depot; J. Mackay, bookseller and stationer; Ferguson and Mitchell, engravers and printers ; Gillies and Street, auctioneers and land and estate agents ; Evans, Kenelly, and Co., land agents. When the flames entered the Bank of Otago they spread very rapidly ; and a clerk who lived on the premises had barely time to escape. It is satisfactory to know that every document of any value belonging to the Bank was last evening placed in a safe—one of the best London mode procurable. Everything in the safe was found in excellent preservation. The Times gives further accounts in its issue of 26th instant. We make the following extracts, portions of which will be found of thrilling interest :— The fire commenced in the Exchange Hotel. The hotel consisted of the front building of two storeys, and a long, low addition at the rear, all behig of wood. The inmates of the hotel on Monday night consisted of Mr. T. Sheehan (the landlord), his wife, and their two young children ; Mr. Sheehan's sister; two women servants; and four men, who were lodgers. They all slept in the main building; but there were bed rooms in the rear parr, over that portion which was formerly occupied as a billiard-room. In this part, too, were the kitchen, etc. The lodgers went to lied between eleven and half-past eleven o'clock ; and at twenty minutes after twelve all the inmates of the house had retired. The fire was discovered a little before two o'clock, by Sergeant Ryan. Being on duty in the neighborhood, the smell of smoke induced him to cross the street to the hotel, and on entering the right-of-way between it and the Bank of Otago, he was met by a cloud of dense smoko, but could see flames at the back of the building as he thought. He called "Fire," and tried to force a side door; but failing in this he went to the front door, broke it open by blows from his truncheon and by kicks, and so got in and continued the alarm. The cook, Alice Maclarlane, appears to have been the first awakened by the sergeant's cries; and she rushed through the short lobby and screamed to Mr. and Mrs. Sheehan to get up and lo save the children. The elder child was with Miss Sheehan ; and while Mr. Sheehan ran to awake her Mrs. Sheehan got down stairs witli the baby. But there was no exit in that direction ; and the husband and wife and sister again went up stairs, and got through one of the windows on to the verandah. Thence, Mr. Sheehan handed, or rather threw, his children, to some of the few anxious persons who had already assembled ; the two women were helped down ; and then Mr. Sheehan returned into the building to look for the servants, aud hoping; to save a sum of £415 odd, and his watch, which he had loft on his dressing-table, but lie could not even reach his room, and the servants' was beyond if. lie had, therefore, hurriedly to retreat to the verandah again, whence he jumped. He sprained his left ankle, and the foot was cut by glass aud stones, fragments of which were subsequently extracted by a surgeon. Alice Macfarlane, the cook, and Christina Ross, the general servant, slept together. They went to bed at eleven o'clock ; Macfarlane states that siie is sure there was no visible fire left in the range, nor was there anything noticeable as suggestive of danger. When she was aroused by the cries of "Fire" from the police-sergeant, Macfarlane awoke Ross, and then called to Mr. and Mrs. Sheehan. It would seem that Ross escaped into the verandah, and thence to the street ; but Macfarlane threw up the window of their bedroom, when the flames in the lobby were very fierce, and having no lime for hesitation she leaped out, and fell nearly 20 feet. She alighted in the right-of-way, and her face no doubt struck the wall of the Bank of Otago as she fell. The poor creature bocame insensible, and lay in the right-of-way until she was found by one of whom we can learn no more than that he is a "gentleman in the Treasury. 7' The girl was in imminent danger, and her finder was unable to carry her forth ; but he speedily got assistance, and she was borne to the Otago Hotel, and was attended by a medical man. She had sustained a severe cut on the right temple, the eye appeared to be injured also, the right cheek was slit open, there was a nasfy wound on one of the wrists, and she bore, several bruises and burns. She was last evening in a rather precarious state. Ross fared better, but she was burned «nd bruised a good deal. The servants, like Mr. Mrs. and Miss Sheehan, have lost all that they had in the house—which, in the case of the servants, means all they possessed. Others made narrow escapes, and one poor fellow, in attempting to get through a window, stuck several times, and got burned by the flames behind him ; and at last leaped out head first into the arms of some policemen, who broke his fall. He was conveyed to the Hospital in a critical state. The following are the amounts insured in the different offices: —London and Lancashire, ,£2500 —North British and Mercantile, ,£3oo—-Otago, £2000—New Zealand, £2050—Australian, £1500 —Northern, ,£4O0 —Liverpool and London and Globe, £3000—Royal, .£3500. The total loss by the fire may, we should think be set down at from £13,000 to £15,000; but it is difficult to make an estimate in the absence of information as to surveys on salvage and some other matters. A fire broke out in Stafford street on Sunday morning, loth January, in the Stafford Arms public house. It was a three-storied building, adjoining a number of small shops and cottages, and contained 18 or 20 lodgers, in addition to the hndlord, Mr. Irwin, his wife and two children. Most of the inmates escaped by means of ladders. Some of them got out of the house at the back, and one man jumped from a window, without receiving any injury. One man named Thomas Ahem perished. He was about 30 years of age, and had served in the Crimea, being one of those who survived the Balaclava charge. It was not ascertained whether he had been unable to escape in the first instance, or had rushed into the house after having once escaped from it, with the view of saving some of the inmates from destruction. His remains were found after the fire, the limbs completely consumed ; only the head and trunk being left. The whole of the buildings on the bio: k were burnt. They belonged to Mr. Feger, were only partially insured, and were valued at £2000.— Daily Times.

There was still another fire on the 18th, in Hope street, in which several buildings were consumed. Damages estimated at about £1500.