FIRE DOES EXTENSIVE DAMAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17729, 26 December 1925, Page 2

FIRE DOES EXTENSIVE DAMAGE.

A C.3RISTMAS EVE OUTBREAK. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, December 26. Examination of the Government Life Insurance Building where the fire occurred on Thursday night revealed that the Stock Exchange and Firth Pumice Company’s offices were a total loss. Every article of furniture was destroyed and walls and ceilings were left gaping. Gillespie's two rooms were also swept by the flames, but the desks and cupboards were not so burned as to ruin their contents. The passageway on the first floor was badly scorched and the room occupied by S. Thorne-Gecrge, sharebroker, suffered slightly from smoke and water. The damage by water is more extensive in the rooms on the ground floor occupied by Hendry and Hay, sharebrokers, and J. Watts and Co., sporting goods importers. No water reached the front portion of the building, used as the office of the Government Life Insurance Department. The furnishings of the Stock Exchange and of Gillespie’s office were insured in the Eagle, Star and British Dominions office for £IOO each. The contents of the office of the Firth Pumice Company were also insured. Apart from the damage to the. furnishings, considerable structural damage has been done to the three which formed the centre of the outbreak- .