Irresistible March of the Flames.

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

Irresistible March of the Flames.

Float ins Cinders Fatal to Bank of N.B.W Later. At 6 o'clock it was clear that the whole triangular block, with the single exception of Young and Tripe's four-storey brick building, which occupies the corner of Grey and Featherston Streets, and presented two solid walls to the fire, was absolutely doomed. The Alliance Insurance Company's building, adjoining the New Zealand Insurance Company in Grey Street, withstood the fire for a couple of hours, and then, like others, it was attacked in the roof, and burnt downwards through its two storeys. The march of the fire was irresistible. After licking up the buildings fronting the eastern side of the Quay, they crept round to the rear and bent their force on Castendyke and Focke's three-storey wooden building, facing Featherston Street. All this time, the officers of the Union Bank of Australia and the police were hastily transporting the Bank's portable property and records not stored rh the strong room to a place of Bafety. Few believed otherwise .than that the Bank of New South Wales would hold out against the tire, but the deluge of cinders and sparks was invincible. Whitcombo and Tombs' building was consumed with extraordinary rapidity in a little over half an hour, and practically none of the huge stock carried by the company remained.