Fire Wipes Out Billiard Room And Office At Taneatua

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 81, 4 January 1950, Page 5

Fire Wipes Out Billiard Room And Office At Taneatua

Fire that was first noticed about 3.40 this morning wiped out a wooden building housing Mr I. Woollams’ hairdressing and billiard saloon business and the offices of Messrs Hamerton and Chappell, solicitors’ next door to the Taneatua hotel. !

Though the Whakatane Fire BrL gade got on the job with a quad and trailer pump as soon as the message came through from the Postmaster at Taneatua, the firemen were hampered by shortage of water and could do little but protect the hotel, on which the paint was blistered when the heat from the fire was at its height. '

Fortunately i;t was possible to save the safes from the. solicitors’ offices, with documents unharmed. Everything else in the building was lost, and the building itself, owned by the Peebles estate, of Taneatua, burned to the ground. Power lines came down, cutting power briefly, but the service was restored this mornings .

Had there been any wind blowing towards it, nothing could have saved the hotel, because, following the long dry spell most tank supplies in the township were low. The well at the hotel was tried by the Brigade, but yielded only about 10 gallons of water, and the luck was no better from the tanks at the bakery. Mr Woollams had his stock insured, and it is understood the building was also covered.