DISASTROUS CITY BLAZE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 157, 29 March 1939, Page 10

DISASTROUS CITY BLAZE

Seven-Story Building Gutted, Another Badly Damaged

LOSS ESTIMATED AT MORE THAN £lOO,OOO

Brigade Battles Bravely In Face Of Danger A disastrous fire in the centre of Wellington last night gutted Victoria House, a building of seven stories in Victoria Street, and the top floor of Hallenstein Brothers three-story building in Willis Street. , . lonA It was probably the worst city fire since the Lambton Quay blaze in 1906. The damage is expected to exceed £lOO,OOO. . The 16 tenants of Victoria House, chiefly manufacturers agents and importeis, lost everything. In Hallenstein Brothers’ building extensive _ damage was done by water and smoke as well as by fire. Damage was also done in adjoining Willis Street buildings, thong i occupiers hastily removed as much of their stock as they could. The outbreak was discovered by a woman in the lift-well of Victoria House at 6.50 p.m. Flames swept quickly through the building, which had brick walls and wooden floors, by the time the brigade arrived they were breaking through the roof. By 8.45 p.m. the interior of Victoria House was a raging inferno Blazing embeis, an inch or more in diameter, filled the air, showering the dense crowds in the streets and thieatening to set fire to buildings hundreds of yards away. Loud explosions from the centre of the blaze sent spectators scuttling for sheltei,. T 1 e brio-adesmen fought on gallantly, though at one time it seemed that the fiont wall of A ictona House would collapse in the street where they were working. . Fanned by a breeze the flames swept through to Hallenstein Brothers’ building m Will s Street, directly at the rear of Victoria House. Firemen were forced to turn their attention to preventing the spread of the conflagration. . . P By 9.30 p.m. the brigade had the outbreak under control. Flames were dying down, but dense clouds of smoke were still pouring from the blackened ruins.