LATE DUNEDIN FIRE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1018, 6 January 1911, Page 4

LATE DUNEDIN FIRE.

inquiry held. CONSTABLE HAVELOCK'S CASE, AND THE WATER SUPPLY, (By Telcsraph-Fress. Association.) Dunedin,. January 5. ; An inquiry into the lire which the Agricultural. Hall buildings on the night of December 22 was held by tha Coroner (Mr. C. C. Graham) to-day. The Coroner explained that the" inquiry was called at the request of the Tire, Board, and was held under the new Fire lioard Act. The ' board had asked for as full an inquiry as possible, and, in order to do that, considerable time had been allowed to elapse so that inquiriescould be made.

The Coroner then read a report by De* tective Ward, who stated that lie had; failed to. obtain any information indicate ing the probable cause of the fire. A report by Superintendent Mitchell, ofl the lire brigade, stated that the alarmi was given by Mr. Harrison, who saw thei lire when driving along Crawford Street, and' told a policeman in Princes Street, to give tho alarm, which was not done. The alarm was given from JeftVs stables, in King Street. The water pressure, at the time, was very light, until the Maori Hill valves were opened. In fact, tha want of pressure was so marked that the , first two leads would not cover the second ' story windows. After the Maori Hill valves were opened, there was ample pressure all nijlit. "I am not prepared to ■ say," continued the superintendent, "whafci is the cfluse of so lime pressure in tha l mains when tho brigade first got to : work, but this has been noticeable afci nearly all fires for some time." The r&-! port also detailed the work done by tha brigade, and stated that, with the except tion of two small bursts, the hose was in' very good order.'

He Told the Constable. • 'ThomasHarrison, retired schoolmaster* stated in evidence that it was about.B.3l> p.m. when,' he discovered the fire. ) He was not sure that a fire was progressing at first, and so turned his horse round, and drove back. Then he saw that the building was really on fire. At the corner of Water Street and Princes Street iio saw a constable, and informed him about the. fire, and also asked him to ring up tho iiro brigade.

' At this stage Inspector O'Brien informed the Coroner that Constable Havelock admitted that it was he to whom Mr. Harrison had spoken. Mr. Harrison (continuing) said that he had seen the constable a little after 8.30 p.m. Ho (witness) u;as probably a little excited, but he was sure that ho said that the Agricultural Hall buildings were on lire, and he asked the constable to" ring up the brigade. Constable Havelock stated that lie wag at the crossing of Princes Street and High Street at B.M p.m. It was true that Jlr. Harrison 1 had informed. him of the fire, and had asked him to :ring up the station. "Witness, however, was positive that there was. a caretaker at the Agricultural Hall, and that, if there really was a fire he (the caretaker) .would notice it. Wit- ■ ness had, at first, run towards the Grand' Hotel to ring' up, but . he subsequently. looked " round, and saw no fire, and, knowing that Mr. Harrison was excitcd, he . thought that it must be a false alarm. On his arrival at the police, station later he .informed Station-Sergeant King, and the latter was about to give -the alarm when the firebell, rang.

Was the City Council to Blame? Thomas Ritchie, of the firm of Waters,. Ritchie, and Co., expressed the disappointment felt by business people at the inadequacy" of the, water pressure. Seeing that a similar thing had occurred at Thomson and Co.'s premises less than a . .hundred yards away, on a previous occasion, one would have thought that something would have been done to effect • a remedy. David Eunson, secretary of the National Electric Engineering Company, stated .that-chevhad left his. office 'about the same time, as Mr. Fulton (secretary of the A. and P. . Society), between 7.30 i and 8 p.m.' In his opinion the.water,, supply seemed perfectly inadequate.' H£l was positive that the, hose' was faulty, and he considered that there was an un-, , due leakage. He was drenched with.' spray while walking backwards and forwards. He thought that it was a pitythat there was no salvage corps 'in Dun. edin. . If he had. been given a proper hose he was satisfied that he could have saved certain records of twenty-five years of professional life. All the firm's cleaning was done at a workshop in Rattray Street. His 'remarks about leaky; hose applied to one particular hose. The chairman of the Fire Board remarked that there was a burst in that hose, and a length had been replaced. Frederick Shortt, manager for Messrs. John Chambers and Son, stated that ha ■ could not account for the fire. He' v:as working in his office .till after S p.m., and about 8.30 he heard a noise of some'thing falling downstairs. On rushing out to tho street he saw that the Brydone Hall (portion -of the A. and P. block) was ablaze. There would be approximately about 100 barrels of lubricating oils, in the'firm's stores. Smoking was strictly prohibited, and that rule ■ was strictly enforced.: No volatile oils were stocked in tho store.

Sir. W. D. R. M'Curdie, acting citr engineer, stated that there was no difference as between night from day in regard to .the . water service. Under ordinary ' circumstances, the hieh-pressure water from Maori, Hill was kept to the high levels, and in the event of a fire- t alarm the brigade had a man who turned j on tho necessary valves. ' " - Captain Mitchell asked how it was that two years before the Maori Hill service had been put on the brigade had more, pressure than was available at present. Tho pressure-then used to vary between 1951b; and 2001b. , Witness remarked that he thought that Captain Mitchell must be mistaken. At the beginning of December the water supply .was running short, and he had Riven instructions to the water inspector to regulate the supply to the southernarea. , Captain Mitchell remarked that ha would like to know why the brigade only got 1401b. of pressure, at the Monse Street fire, where seven buildings wore jeopardised. He understood that 141b. in the main from Silverstream had been shut off. Witness replied that he did not knowthat the mafn had been cut off. The Coroner asked if the Maori Hill pressure could not be keot on all night. Witness replied that the onlv remedy was for the brigade to keep 'in touch with the state of the water supplied at all times, and with the valves controlling the mains. . T n the course of further discussiou, Cantain Mitchell stated that every _ ayailablo ■ inch of waitr shonld be available for a fire at any time of the night. If the Woaclhaugh (Maori Hill) valve, and the south (Silverstream) value were shut down, Maori Hill would supply the whole citv.

The Coroner on tho Constable. The Coroner remarked'that it was-very ' hard that tho city should be short of water just when it was wanted. Tt was. nerhans, a question for the engineers to settle. Ho added that there was no evidence to show the cause of tie fire. Tt was extraordinary that it should have been.burning: f-o lons without bein? discovered, as people were actually oil tho premises. It was regrettable that thcra had been a slight delay in civiiig notice to the brigade, and it seemed to him that Constable Hr.velcok had committed an error cf judgment. The constable should have had no hesitation in giving. tho alarm. None of the evidence led him to suppose that the hose and other- apparatus 'was in anything but Rood order. It seemed, however, that the water pressure was not sufficient when the brisado arrived, and this matter should 1.-e sone into carefully by 'ohe Water Department of the City Council.'