SPECTACULAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19841, 16 May 1927, Page 6

SPECTACULAR

A LYTTELTON FIRE Boats and Shed Make Early Morning Bonfire LOSS RUNS INTO THOUSANDS [Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 15. The biggest fire that has occurred at Lyttelton since the New Zealand Shipping Coy’s wool store was destroyed, 14 years ago, broke out in the early hours of this morning, when a block of boat sheds on the waterfront, adjoining the idpcks and owned by Messrs J. Miller Ltd. and A. C. Whitford, both shipwrights, was completely destroyed, with a large boat slip owned by the Harbour Board.

The block was a rambling structure of wooden sheds, all dry as tinder, and with the shavings, timber, paint and, boats contained in them, supplied all tho requirements for a big fire. The brigade had a hopeless task in front of them on arrival, the flames leaping 50 feet in the air. During the fire big pieces of blazing timber floated away on the water, endangering yachts and small craft moored nearby. Handicapped from the start by a low pressure of water, the brigade could idjo little more than prevent the fire spreading to other buildings and stacks and trucks of timber. While the blaze was at its height the Harbour Board’s tug Lyttelton took up position along side the dock jetty, and her pumps were connected with the brigade hose, thus augmenting the water supply Several boats which were housed in tho she>d;s were destroyed by fire.

The Takapuna sailing yachts Kai Iwi and Sea Pearl, owned by Elliott Sinclair and Hubert Norris respectively both of which took part in the Cornwall Cup contest in February, wore lost, with S. Sinclair’s Linnet 11. A number of dinghies on slip w&s burned, as was a large keel yacht of about tons which Miller anid. Co. had nearly completed. A fire broke out in the motor boat Eunice, but was extinguished by a scratch crew in a Sea-Scout boat. The fishing launch Bessie, which launched herself in the early stages of tho fire through the ropes burning through was damaged to the extent of £250.

No estimates of the total idjamage are yet available, but the losses must run into several thousand pounds.