HOTEL GUTTED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19986, 19 December 1934, Page 8

HOTEL GUTTED

BLAZE AT WESTPORT By Telegraph—Press Association WESTPORT, December 18. One of Westport’s leading commercial hotels, the Empire, in Palmerston Street, was in part gutted by fire today. The building is an old two-storey one, part of it having been removed to the present site in 1872 when the old township was swept by a flood. It contained 40 rooms, those in the centre of the building being gutted and the others more or less affected by water and smoke. The insurances total £2OOO in the London and Lancashire office on the building and £IOOO on the furniture and building in the British Traders’ Office, with £290 on the personal effects of the licensee, Mr J. H. L. Barry. A collision between a motor-car, a motor-cycle and sidechair and a bicycle occurred during the rush to the fire in Lyndhurst Street, all the vehicles being more or less damaged. Mr William Caldwell (62), a member of the Borough Council and Hospital Board received injuries to the head, face and body.