Fire at Invercargill.

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 101, 17 October 1871, Page 6

Fire at Invercargill.

A telegram published in the Daily Times of 12 th hist., gives the following account of a destructive conflagration which occxirrcd in one of the principal streets of Invercargill :

Ixvhroarcill, October 11

A great fire occurred this morning at three o'clock, in Tay street. It is supposed to have commenced in the servants' room at the Bank of Otago. The fire-bell rang some time before the engines were manned. When brought into play, Hunter and Hawkshaw's grocer's shop, next door, was also on fire. All.the inmates of the buildings in the block escaped, many of the women and children in their night-dresses. Strong parties of volunteers removed a large amount of furniture. Despite every exertion, the fire extended from the Bank of Otago to the premises of Messrs Hunter and Hawkshaw ; Dalwig, furniture maker; Broad, watchmaker ; Lloyd, photographer; Hatch, chemist ; Ingram's Garrick Club Hotel; Coutts, tailor, Mitchell, bootmaker. An intervening gap now stayed the progress of the fire, which threatened the premises of Messrs Stock and Co., wholesale grocers, and Messrs Yule and Co.'s drapery premises. This was to the eastward. To the westward of the Bank of Otago stands the Bank of New Zealand. A right-of-way bohveen gave an opportunity of saving it, although the facade was scorched. To the northward, the progress of too fire was stopped by destroying small buildings. After the fire, the strong room of the Bank of Otago was found to be intact, and all the books and documents uninjured. The wind was blowing from the north-west, but not strong, or all that side of Tay-strect would have boon destroyed. The insurances are a* follows:—In the Liverpool, London, and Globe : Otago Bank building, £SOO ; Hunter and Hawkshaw, stock, £SOO ; Moffat, £250; Coutts, £SO ; Mitchell, £SO. Northern : Broad, building, £2oo—stock and furniture, £250 ; Hatch, £950. Royal: Bank of Otago, £SOO. New Zoaland : Hatch, shop and fittings, £-100. Victoria : Coutts, £IOO ; Hunter and Hawk shaw, £3OO ; Garrick Club Hotel, £IOO.