PUKERIMU FIRE

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIX, Issue 3160, 9 November 1929, Page 4

PUKERIMU FIRE

A HOMESTEAD DESTROYED. MR D. M. BOURSE'S LOSS. At 1.30 yesterday morning fire completely destroyed the homestead and its contents owned by Mr and Mrs D. M. Bourke, of Pukerimu. At the time of the outbreak there was no one at the house. Mrs Bourke, during the past few days, has been keeping house for her sister, Mrs E. Hart, in Cambridge, and Mr Bourke was only at the farm in the day-time. He was at the farm the day prior to the fire, and although he had occasion to use a fire in both the living-room and the adjoining wash-house, everything appeared safe when he left the farm to return to Cambridge in the evening, The outbreak was observed by Mr Bourke’s sharemilkers, but the homestead, a fairly old, wooden building of eight rooms, and conveniences, was then a mass cf flames, and they could only stand by and watch its swift destruction with the whole of the contents, nothing being saved. Mr Bourke is at a loss to account for the fire, except that one of the chimneys is blackened in one part that suggests there may have been a defect. Insurances. v The' buildings w r cre insured for £7OO in the South British Insurance Company’s office, while Mr Bourke also had a cover of £4OO on the contents in the Alliance Company Is offiee. Despite these covers Mr and Mrs Bourke will be heavy losers, for they have lost the whole ‘of their personal efforts, which included many of great personal value.