BIG CITY BLAZE.
A LARGE PRIVATE HOTEL DESTROYED.
NARROW ESCAPES.
A fifty-roomed boarding-house, known as tho Melroso Private Hotel, in Ingestre Street, was burned to the ground between four and fivo o'clock on Saturday morning. Thero was a high wind at tho time, and tho brigade had a strenuous fight to save adjacent property. Tho destroyed building was formerly known as Poss's Private Hotel, and was next to tho Brunswick Hotel. Tho occupants had little time in which to quit the burning building, and most of thom lost all their effects. Some, indeed, had a little difficulty in escaping at all. Tho proprietor, Mr. Edward Bushby, Mrs. Bushby, and their children were sleeping on the ground floor. They were awakened by the noiso, but in escaping down a passago were almost choked by thick smoko. A boarder named Hanson had his means of exit cut off, and was rescued by tho firemen' with a ladder. Another boarder could not got down the staircaso nor out a window owing to the flames. Ho scrambled over the roof, and got down a ladder-escape in the front of the hotel, and in doing so burnt his hands rather badly on tho hot rungs.
The alarm in the house was given by Mr. Percy Wood, of tho Tax Department. Ho endeavoured to get tho gong, but was driven back by smoke, but he then rushed round tho passages waking tho boarders. Many escaped in only their night attire.
Tho building was owned by tho Luxford Estate, and was insured in tho Commercial Union offico for £1700. Mr. Bushby had a policy of £500 on his furniture, but the piano and personal effect were not covered.
During the blazo an adjoining twostory building, occupied as a boarding-houso by Mr. William Young, caught fire, but the brigade soon extinguished tho new outbreak. The building, however, has been ■ damaged by water. It is insured in tho National office for £500, and tho furniture is covered in the London, Liverpool, and Globo Co. to the extent of £100.
The water pressure available was good—l4olb. to 1501b.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19131013.2.93
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Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1879, 13 October 1913, Page 8
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348BIG CITY BLAZE. Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1879, 13 October 1913, Page 8
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