SCHOOL BURNED TO GROUND

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1928, Page 3

SCHOOL BURNED TO GROUND

DESTRUCTION AT NG A ERE. CHILDREN MARCH TO SAFFETY. After standing for 43 years, the Ngaere school was completely destroyed by fire yesterday morning. The outbreak apparently started as a result of overheating or a defect in the sheet iron chimney of a heating stove situated in the infant’s room at the rear of the school. Within a few minutes the fire was noticed by the headmaster (Mr. T. Taylor). Two of tlio elder boys, R. Bird and Louis Volski, at once scrambled on to the roof and endeavoured with buckets of water to subdue the outbreak. Meanwhile Mr. Taylor fossicked for an implement to prise sheets of iron from the roof so as to reach the fire. Unfrtunately, his efforts met with little success, for the seasoning of years had made the timbers dry and flameable. The flames spread quickly, and in the absence of fire-fighting appliances, the school staff and the crowd of settlers who were quickly drawn to the spot could only confine their attention to saving the contents. The children were removed without panic soon after discovery of the fire and a great portion of the school boks, literature, etc., was saved. Mr. J. W. B. Jones and Mr. A. Davis, of the Public Works Department, who were passing by oar and noticed the smoke, joined a number of settlers including Mr. Bocock (secretary to the school committee) and succeeded” in conveying the school piano to safety. The fire commenced about 11 o’clock and within half an hour, so fiercely did it burn, the only remaining sign of the institution was a gaunt brick chimney standing mid the ruins of three classrooms.