MOTUROA HOME BURNED

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1934, Page 6

MOTUROA HOME BURNED

HOUSE AND CONTENTS RAZED OWNER VISITING TONGAPORUTU. THREAT TO ADJOINING PREMISES. FAMILY VACATES FOR SAFETY. One house and its contents were burned completely and two others and a shop narrowly escaped the flames when fire broke out in Mr. William Smith’s fiveroomed wooden dwelling on Ngamotu Road, Spotswood, between 8.15 and 8.20 last night Mr. Smith, his wife and four children had left at 2 p.m/ for a camping holiday at Tongaporutu and the place was empty when the outbreak occurred. Smoke was first noticed by Mrs. £. Williamson, upon whose information another neighbour telephoned the New Plymouth fire station. Thinking the fire was on the lower part of Ngamotu Road, the brigade took the large engine to the locality, only to discover that the outbreak was over the hill and out or bounds. The firemen went on, however, and thus were able to save two houses and a shop adjoining the destroyed property and a shed at the back. No reticulated water was available, and as the fire had apparently been burning some time it was impossible to save Mr. Smith’s house or any of its contents. For a time it looked as though the adjoining properties must be burned too, certainly the house on the southern side, separated from the burning building by not more than a few feet. So serious did the position look at one stage that Mr. Prior, the occupant, and his wife and five children vacated the premises op the advice of Deputy-Super-intendent Ford and the furniture was removed to safety. The danger was averted only on the collapse of the southern wall of the burning house, and later the furniture was returned to the rooms. Had the wind been the other way it was considered the place could not have been saved. , - Forming a bucket chain, the firemen used water from the tanks and 40 ga lons pumped from the engine. All they could do, however, was to keep the flames from spreading from the doomed building to those around it. The house on the northern side, which is occupied by Mr. Charles Olsen, was threatened, though not as seriously as the other because of its greater distance from the seat of the trouble. A shop belonging to Mr. Smith and used by him as a lumber-room was endangered, but was saved after its contents had been removed. A shed at the back of the burned house escaped, too. The cause of the outbreak is a mystery as the house had been locked when Mr. Smith left for Tongaporutu. It is not known whether either the building or its contents was insured. It is understood that Mr. Smith, a waterside worker, built the place himself, putting up a room at a time.