Great Fire at Blenheim.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2087, 1 July 1887, Page 2

Great Fire at Blenheim.

THE CENTRE OF THE TOWN IN RUINS. TWENTY-SIX BUILDINGS CONSUMED. £SO cod WORTH OF PROPERTY DESTROYED. Bleniip.im. Thursday. A most disastrous conllagration broke oat in Blenheim shortly before two o'clock this morning. The fire was first discovered in the apartments occupied by the family of Mr Carter, landlord of the Criterion Hotel. The fire soon bad a firm hold of the building.and rptickly spread to the building occupied by Augustus, hair dresser, and running along Market street, it consumed the shops held by Falconer, cabinetmaker ; Burns, saddler; Healy, bootshop ; Galloway, draper; and Adams, butcher. The offices of S. J Macalister, commission agent, were pulled down, and stopped the progress of the fire in this direction.

A light north wester fanned the flames across the street, destroying the Colonial Bank, Jubilee Drapery Warehouse, and the shops of Williams, bootmaker; M’Kenzie, butcher; Tucker,stationer; Oldershaw,con. fectioner; Bison, druggist (No t shop); Riugstead, barber ; Pigot, clothier ; Mullen, draper; Elson, druggist (2nd shop); Griffiths, auctioneer; Macey, photographer ; Mason, watchmaker; Scott, confectioner (gutted). In Alfred street the Oddfellows’ Hall and two cottages were consumed. It is thought the value of the property destroyed will amount to about £50,000.

The Criterion Hotel was, after the Grand Hotel in Dunedin, probably tbs finest and best furnished establishments of ths kind in New Zealand, Ths Wairau Club had rooms in it The building was, wo learn, insured in the Phoenix Office for £3OOO. Altogether the insurances are roughly estimated, where the information is necessarily imperfect, at from £35,000 to £27.000. SUPPOSED LOSS OF LIFE. It is feared that Dr Horne, one of the oldest settlers in the district, perished in the fire at the Criterion Hotel. He ie known to have slept there, and nothing cm be hoard of him today. At first it was thought he hud gone to his farm, some miles out of town, but that was not not tha case. The ruins have been searched, but no body has yet been found. Dr Horne was called when the fire briik” on*, and it is r=rorfe I he got up, but all hope of his being tl.ve is lost.