FIRE-GAIETY THEATRE, NAPIER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1147, 7 June 1911, Page 6

FIRE-GAIETY THEATRE, NAPIER.

BURNT IN HALF AN HOUR. (B? Teleirraph.—Press Association.) Napier, Juno G. A fi.ro broke out shortly after 9 o'clock this morning in the Gaiety Theatre, a huge iron structure used for the combined purposes, of Thompson and Payne's Pictures and Hawkins and Rowe's motor garage. Before the brigade arrived the flames, assisted by the inflammable contents, had taken entire charge of the building, and the efforts of the firemen had to be concentrated to confining the fire within the limits of the theatre. The whole structure was soon a roaring furnace, and but for the fact that it was isolated the fire miist have spread. As it was, shops and dwellings on the south side of Dickens Street were badly scorched and windows broken. So rapidly did tho flames spread that the caretaker of the, building (Jlimro) and his wife had a narrow escape, the former receiving severe burns. Within half an hour of the alarm being given the theatre was a mass of smoking debris. The insurances are: Building, .£ISOO in the Sun (.£75,0 reinsured in the New.Zealand office), .£">00 in the Northern, and J250 in the Royal. Thompson and Payne estimate their loss at over .£2OOO, the films destroyed being valued at ,£BOO. Hawkins and Rowe's insurance on the plant, etc., is ,£-100 in tho Atlas, and on the cars, .£9OO in the same office. Thompson' and Payne were insured for .£-150 m the State Office. The insurances total £4fioo.