CHRISTCHURCH FIRES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

CHRISTCHURCH FIRES

TRAGIC BLAZE RECALLED

(By

“Scrutator.”)

Is incendiarism endemic? Christchurch is at. present slowly convalescing from a/ severe attack of the dread malady, but despite the watchfulness of reinforced brigades and police it■’cannot yet' ward off occasional relapses. _ Thus an attempt was made to burn the Addington school swimming pavilion-the . other evening, and the very inext night the fire -fiend visited the - Addington Anglican Church. This, however; ife not the first time the cathedral city has been similarly afflicted. None whoilived , there at-the time could forget those two disastrous Sunday nights in the ’summer - of 1917-18.. The war .had' worn- th# - ' nerves of the people to shreds and they were only too ready to-believe the series of fires that started in Auckland and spread as far as; Christchurch ’ was the work of a German spy.. I

The staff of the ■ Christchurch Press had just finished supper one Sunday night when, dense volumes of black smoke mingled with sparks commenced to come through the back windows' and pass across the flat roof of the big building on Cathedral • Square. ! Lessthan TOO yards away, in Manchester Street; His Majesty's Theatre was a raging' inferno! Brigades were ;concentrated from all districts, but-their task was hopeless?’ Nothing could ’sub-, due the great conflagration-'that - at# into the dry timbers; fanned by a forced-, self-created draught through the big auditorium. Tons ' of- water disappeared in steam—th ? flames . roared on, apparently unchecked. • - "

Several hours passed.- The adjoining* buildings seemed, doomed, despite, thefact that they .were’- kept soaked with*: water from many leads.' Tliqn the thing*-,/ happened that'thousands of spectators'- '' had been expecting. There was a terrific crash, a rfending of timbers, a : •; rush of flames, sparks and smoke high into the sky ! The .huge dome roof .'had fallen in! A brilliant" cloud' of sparks and embers precipitated golden rain on the-robf of the. Press building, and then passed on to fall in a deluge bn the Square. It 'was' an awesome., spectacle, .. but there was little time to contemplate its beauty. “Buckets and extingiiishser,'quickly!” was a ci’y. tliqt roused ' everyone .from reverie to action. Day was breaking before the danger had completely ’. passed . and calm was restored. ' , ' . - i

“Phew!” said a Pressman as he wiped the perspiration from his face. ' “One night like this is enough for me.” “But .. it would be a joke'if there were another Are next Sunday night?” suggested a young inember of ,the staff. Little did he realise how .truly he had spoken, for about 3 a.m., a week later there commenced probably the most ' tragic fire in the. history of Christchurch. The Silver Grid boardinghouse further down Manchester Street was • alight, and before the flames were extinguished several hours later four or five people had lost tjiei'r lives. It was • a holocaust. The building was' old'and . dry as tinder, hemmed,in on either side ' by shops —a death-trap. • Some of the inmates on the second .floor were incinerated as they slept. Others rushed' frantically to the rear only to find the escapes had been burnt through. Mad with terror, they ra?'back to the street frontage. Already shockingly burnt by the pursuing flames, they stepped from the windows on to the glass roof. Crash! Bleeding from .burns and the wounds made by splintered glass, they fell...tf the footpath dead, or dying in agony. , That was the day the Christchurch ’ . Press secured a big scoop over the Lyttelton Times, its morning contemnorary. The Press came out that morning with a brief account of the fire in its earlier stages, quite sufficient to f indicate its tragic consequences; the - Times had nothing. ' * .. ' This was how it was done: The final forme had been locked up and stereotyped, and the machinist was about to set the big rotary moving when a telephone message came through. “Hold it up!” said the chief sub-editor. The reporters had gone home'long be- i fore, the lino-men had gone, too. But a newspaper man can never rest while good “copy” is escaping. So the cable- b. sub was sent post-haste to the fire. The sub sat in his chair, ready to transcribe whatever scran of information might arrived over the wire. It came. Somehow it was set. Another plate was The Press had achieved its scoop!