DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT DUNEDIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 968, 13 June 1883, Page 2

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT DUNEDIN.

[by telegraph] Dunedin, Yesterday.

A fire broke out in a new railway goods shed at about half l past eight o’clock this evening. It was completely destroyed in leas than an hour. It was full of goods, a considerable portion of cargo of the Westmeath and the whole of the goods per Tarawera, which came in this morning, having been stored in it. It is & question whether the goods being stored from ship board, the insurance risks are at an end. The shed had only been taken over from the contractor a week or ton days ago. It was a building perhaps a couple of hvindred feet in length. There was no water available for a long time, as the shed was on the reclaimed ground. Thousands of people were on the scene of the fire.

There were fourteen truck loads cf goods from *the Tarawera put into the burnt shed this evening. One importer of jewellery had goods to the value of LSOOO in it. The shed has been’in the hands of the Railway Department a month. Nothing is known yet as to the origin of the fire. It is believed the loss to Insurance Companies will be extremely little, but that it will all fall on the owners.

The size of the burnt shed was 450 ft in length, and it had cost nearly L3uoo. Two night watchmen were on duty, one of whom was specially told off lo watch this and another, the import shed. He had gone the round at a quarter past eight, trying all the doors, and nothing appeared to bo wrong. Within leas than half an hour the fiie-bell rang. All the goods per Tarawera, a quantity by the Wakatipu, and a few packages by the Westmeaih were in it. Eleven railway trucks loaded were in the shed. Nothing at all was saved. A large number of leading importers are losers. A sixteen-horse-power gas engine, intended to drive the printing and electric light machinery in the Daily Times office, was burnt. Donbwn, To-day.

At 8 35 p.m. yesterday the goods shed was completely filled with inflammable goods, and the flames, which spread with astonishing rapidity, had the effect of brilliantly illuminating the southern and central wards. Though several streams of water were played upon it, it was impossible to save the building. Superintendent Carmalt and Lieutenant Fox, of the Salvage Corps, found the railway constable breaking open the main door of the goods shed, in order to obta n certain books and other valuable property. By this time the smoke was suffocating, and it was with the utmost difficulty the fire, men again closed the door, the opening of which had been the means of increasing the volume of the flames. The shed, which was of wood and roofed with slate, was 400 feet long by 30 feet in width, and had only been used about two months. One lot of jewellery in it was said to be worth L 5,000 and very little was saved. It is impossible to estimate correctly the value of the goods destroyed, but authority has given an expression of opinion to the effect that L 100,001) will not cover the actual loss. Among the goods destroyed were moat of those included in the following manifests :—Per Westmeath, l,3lorails, Hon. Ministerfor Public Works; 272 packages, Reid and Gray; 1 do, Bishop Moran ; 16 do, O. Bell; 2 do, Matheson Bros; 9 do, 0. Ford; 1 do, W. H. Teacheinaker ; 2 do, B. Storm ; 1 do, W. Turpin ; 60 ingots, A, and T. Burt; 48 packages, Park and Curie ; 2 do, Whittingham Bros and Instone ; 42 do, W. Couston ; 7 do, Boss and Glendening ; 6 do, Sargood, Son and Ewin ; 2 do, Millchamp; 2077 do, A. Briscoe and Co ; 4931 do; 50 .tons pig iron, N.Z. Woodware Co; 33 packages, G. Munroe ; 2 do, Gibbs, Bright and Co ; 2419 do, Hardware Co > o lot do to order, and the transhipments. Per Wakatipu : 28

packages, Gibbs, Bright and Co ; 3 do, Tomlinson ; 3 do, Fernhill Club ; 7 do, Cargill and Co. ; 25 do, Meenan ; 1 do, Walker; 20 do, Carter and Co. ; Ido, White; 26 do, McQuaid ; 4 do, Brown, Ewing and Co ; 172 do, Dunning Bros. ; 103 do, Poull ; 1 do, Heath ; 1 do, E. Smith ; 186 do, order ; 3 do, Haggitt ; „ 1 do, Esquillant; 1 do, Lister ; 20 do, Turnbull and Co ; 2 do, Larnauh ; 1 do, Dr Ooughtrey ; 8 do, Nixon ; 1 do, New Zealand Drug Co ; 1 do, Braithwaite ; 1 do, Wilkinson and Pettit ; 1 do, Herbert Haynes and Co ; 2 do, Hallenstein ; 20 do, Anderson and Co ; 1 do, Jolly, Connor and Co ; 1 do, Evening Star ; 50 do, Neill Bros. , 2 do. Kum Goon Lee ; 1 do, Lieber and Co ; 135 do, Larnach ; 72 do, Pryor; 72 do, Silverstone; 63 do, Patterson ; 1 do, Smith ; 1 do, Isaac ; 160 do, Mackerras and Hazlett ; 4 do, S. Mackay ; 2 do, McGavi ; 1 do, Walters ; per Tarawera, Hpkgs, Soider ; 1 do, Haeboron ; 1 do, Mercer Bros. ; 4 do, Wong Sapo ; 6 do, Butler Bros.; 1 do, Coning and Lloyd ; 2 do, Sargood, Son and JEwen ; 8 do, Roberston ; 1 do, P. Dayman and Co ; 11 do, »V. Speight and Co ; 1 do, Weston ; 16 do, R. Wilson and Co ; 1 do, Elliott ; 1 do, Norman ; 1 do, Maxwell; 8 do, Marshall and Co; 50 do, Neill and Co (Limited) ; 41 do, New Zealand Drug Co; 3 do, Gregg and Co; 2 do, Peacock; 13 do, Baxter and Co ; 1 do, Vickers ; 1,237 do, New Zealand Woodware Co ; 13 do, Lightband, Allan and Co ; 17 do, Watt and Go ; 22 do, New Zealand Shipping Co ;20 do, order. The fire burned very fiercely until midnight, and at one time it was feared that the goods in the Harbor Board’s shed,, near the. wharf, would have ignited. James Thomson,;a railway employe, who is responsible for locking up the goods-shed, states that he carefully did so at 5.10 p.m. yesterday, when there was no sign of fire in the office grate. He locked all the doors of the shed, and can make no suggestion whatever as to the origin of the fire, which broke out near the south-west corner of the building. Shortly before 5 o’clock nine or ten waggons full of gcods were shunted into the shed for safety. Two watchmen were employed by the Railway Department to look after the goods-sheds, and one of them went round this building ai 6 p.m. and also at a quarter past 8 last evening, when everything appeared to be quite safe. The first watchman is on duty regularly from 6 p.m. till 3 a.m.. and the second man is employed daily from 8 p.m. till about 6.30 a.m. The regulations as to smoking in the goods sheds have always been strictly enforced. There is no insurance on the building. Of the goods destroyed a large proportion is said to have been insured, but the particulars have not yet been compiled. It is probable an inquest will be ordered by the Minister of Works. A man named Brown says he saw the fire before it had a great hold of the building, and that it originated at the southern end. There are, however, various other persons who claim to be the first who discovered the fire. Since the erection of the new railway shed the night watchmen, Charles Robin and William Yeich, have been constantly ondutv. The latter was specially instructed to ke,-p an eye on the new importers’ shed, and reports that at a quarter past eight he went round the shed next Rattray street cross Wharf (the one destroyed), and triad all the doors,, everything being then all right. .Shortly after half past eight an alarm was sounded, and in a few minutes afterwards the south end of the building was one sheet of flame. The wind was blowing iti the direction of the Harbor Board’s shed, abutting on the wharf a few yards distant. Fears were entertained for the safety of this shed, and it was deemed advisable to keep two jets of water playing on the roof. Luckily it was of corrugated galvanised iron construction. Fears were also entertained for the safety of the cross wharf, and the newly-built steamer Port Jackson, which was lying alongside, shipped her moorings and stood off. By the time the fire brigades had arrived, the flames had so firm a hold of the building that it was impossible to save anything. After some delay, there being a scarcity ;of water, two jets were b ought to bear on the northern end of the building, in the hope of saving a quantity of valuable jewellery there. The efforts of the Brigade, however, proved futile, and the flames spread and spread till the whole length of the building was a sea of flame, 160 yards along. The scene at this stage was a grand one. The main portion of the southern half of the building fell in with a crash, and the flames shot higher into the air, lighting up the houses on the heights of Mornington, throwing out in bold relief the outlines of many larger buildings in Bond and Princes streets, and lighting up a considerable extent of the harbor. Meanwhile the firemen worked cheerily, and were assisted by relays from the on-lookers in pumping water from the Bay. But all their efforts could not stay the progress of the devouring elements, and before 10 o’clock the shed was a heap of burning ruins. The shed was well filled with merchandise of all descriptions, including tobacco, rice, groceries, several cases of valuable jewellery, and many other articles. The entire cargo of the s.s. Taraweca, and a great portion of the cargo of the s.s. Wakatipu, and several packages ex Westmeath were among the goods stored in the building. The loss incurred by the consignees of these goods will, in most cases, be very heavy, as the marine insurances lapse, on the goods being discharged from the vessels, while very few of the merchants are in the habit of re-insuring their goods immediately after they arrive on land. Among the firms whose goods were destroyed, maj be mentioned the following —W. and G. Turnbull and Go, Mackerras and Hazlett, A. and J. M'Farlana, Neill Bros., Otago Bible, Tract and Book Society, J. Rattray and Co, Robinson and Co, M'Gregorand Co f Ross and Glendining, James Wilkie and Co, R. Wilson and Co, J. S. Williams, Wertheim Sewing Machine 00, Braithwaite, Mitchell, Sligo, Gibbs, Bright and Co, H. J. Moat (Oamaru), Miles, Archer and Oo (Timaru), New Zealand Drug Co, Hallenstein Bros., New Zealand Express Co, Maclean and Stewart, Lance, Bernshardt, Grigg and Co, B. and G. D. and M. A. Co, F. Meean, Singer and Berens and Silverstone. At a late hour last night a large quantity of tobacco and a good deal of jewellery, all very much damaged, were recovered. It was at this end of the building some four cases of jewellery consigned to Berens and Silverstone, were stored, and some police constables rumaging amongst the ashes and dying embers on several occasions came across gold and silver watches, bunches of keys and other jewellery which wore placed in a cab and driven away to the railway offices in Dowling street. Later. The Otago Daily Times machinery was found in the station this morning uninjured, and several large firms are covered oy floating policies. The Star office consignments by the Westmeath and Tarawera wore delivered yesterday.