Tremendous and Awe-inspiring mass of Flame.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12003, 22 October 1906, Page 5

Tremendous and Awe-inspiring mass of Flame.

Buildings Collapse with roar like Artillery. Latsr. When the Poet Office clock tolled 5.30, all the buildings between Batkin's tobacconist's shop and the splendid building of the Bank of New South Wales, were one tremendous and awe inspiring mass of flames. The crashing in of Whitcombe and Tombs' fine four-storey building might be likened to the roar of artillery and the crack of rifles on a battle field, pie small windows in the upper storeys jingled in splinters on tho street below, and then the huge plate glass windows on the ground flour fell outwards with a mighty roar, and ground themselves into a thousand pieces. It was a gorgeous, yet a sorrowful spectacle to watch the flames dancing above the roof tops, but pathetic to think of the thousands of pounds worth of valuable property which were being converted into blackened ruins at express speed.