ALARM GIVEN

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

ALARM GIVEN

Woman Notices Fire In Lift Well FLAMES SHOOT UP TO TOP FLOOR Engines Quickly At Scene The alarm was given by Mr. B. O. Walton, an employee of Progress Motors, which is situated opposite Victoria House. A woman rushed to him at about 6.50 p.m. saying that there was a fire in the liftwell of the building. Mr. Walton saw several packing-cases in the well blazing fiercely, and immediately rang the Fire Brigade. Within a very short time a number of engines were at the scene of the outbreak, but by this time the flames had shot up the well to the top floor; and had started to break through the roof. The fire apparently spread backward, as well as upward, for in Chew s Lane smoke could be seen issuing through holes in the wall. The intense heat had also cracked the top walls of the building.

At this time tlie lire was not spectacular ami about the only place where flames could be seen was from this lane. Huge clouds of smoke, however, attracted the attention. Tongues of flame shooting through the heavy pall of smoke provided an eerie sight. Flames streaming away from a flagpole on the top of Victoria House made it appear as though there were a fiery flag fluttering from the mast. This continued to smoulder for more than an hour.

Gradually the fire worked its way down from the top of the building, and as each floor was eaten through there was a resounding crash, which made nearby spectators rush for shelter. All the time there was a continual cloud of sparks being swept away from the top of the building, which were carried along by the wind, and threatened the safety of adjoining buildings. Showers of sparks fell on the streets, making a brilliant sight on the black, wet roadway. As the fire ate its way through the floors the flames shot out through windows, which were soon smashed. Loud Explosions. Loud explosions about S o’clock sent people watching the fire from Victoria Street to the nearest shelter. Windows crashed on to the street, and there was a wild scramble into doorways. The explosions shattered many windows in buildings on the opposite side of tlie street to Victoria House. At Ibis time the lire in Victoria House seemed to be confined mainly to the three top floors. Dense, black smoke issued from the second floor, but there were no Hames. The fire seemed, however, to have a grip on the first floor, where the outbreak was blazing fiercely. Several smaller explosions occurred laler as oilier inflammable material caught fire.

Eears that the front wall of the building would collapse caused the firemen to renew even more strenuously their attack on the outbreak in Victoria Street soon after 8 o’clock. Four leads of hose were playing on the fire. Falling cinders punctured the hoses, and water spouting from these holes flowed across streets into gutters, which were already taxed to capacity by the waler running from the buildings.

City Council employees cut off the electric power Io a sub-station in Chew’s Lane about 8.39 p.m. Reenwed Out break.

The fire broke out with renewed vigour about 8.-15 o’clock. Homes shooting many feet into the sky from Hie top of Victoria House. H.v this lime the whole of the interior of the building was a raging inferno, and the heat from the flames could be felt a hundred yards away. Most of the floors had collapsed, and the brigadesmen concentrated tlreir attention on preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings. Sparks had set minor

outbreaks going on several buildings, but these were suppressed without much difficulty. The work of the fire-fighters began to have an appreciable effect by 9.30 p.m., when the flames were dying away. The shower of sparks had ceased, but huge clouds of smoke continued to pour from the burnt buildings. The seven floors of Victoria House had been gutted, together with the contents. Burning Ember Showers. Two machines operated from Chew's Laue, running' from Willis Street to Victoria Street, and from a right-of-way off the lane the lire in Victoria House was attacked from tlie rear by two powerful lines of hose. The firemen had to fight against great odds, however, as the wind, blowing from the north, was against them. Cliew’s Lane was showered with burning embers which, with every gust of wind, were sprayed across Willis Street. Before them the crowd melted more quickly than it would before mounted police. Early salvage operations were begun from the factory and workshop in Chew’s Lane of AVhitcombe and Caldwell, Ltd., gun-makers and sports goods manufacturers. Cases of ammunition were carried across the lane and stowed in the Hotel Windsor building by a willing band of helpers, who fought their way through dense smoke, spraying emlbers and showers of water. Two engines worked from Willis Street. Two leads of hose were taken over the top of the three-story H.B. building, 33 Willis Street, and further leads from the two-story building to the south of it. Later, leads were taken through the shops on the ground floors of those buildings. Flames in Willis Street.

Willis Street carried a dense crowd of several thousand people and as the lire drove its way from Victoria Street the police ordered them back. The firemen were putting up a desperate fight but at that stage could do little to_stem the progress of the flames. By 8.45 p.m. the lire had reached the Willis Street front and flames burst through the windows of the Phyllis Bates dance studio, which was soon a raging furnace inside. The firemen were driven down from the top of the 11.8. building by the advancing flames on to the building below. A third machine was brought to Willis Street and two leads of hose were played from the ground through tiie windows of the dance studio. Later firemen climbed the fire escape and trained a third hose into the studio, which was on the top floor, and the outbreak there was soon subdued. Bands of willing civilian helpers and several territorials lent their aid to the firemen, among whom there were several casualties. One man had a hand badly injured and another a leg. Both carried on gamely, the former after treatment by the Wellington Free Ambulance. Other Outbreaks. The embers from the blaze were carried by the wind over the whole centre of the city south of Victoria House, and minor outbreaks occurred on the roofs of numbers of other buildings several hundred yards from the outbreak. The brigadesmen ran up an extension ladder in front of the building of John Dulbie and Co., Ltd., iron and steel merchants, in Willis Street, and from this great height a hose was trained on an outbreak on the roof. Further south still, 300 yards from the main fire, an outbreak occurred on the roof of the building occupied by the Art Cabinet Company in Willis Street, and the flagpole of the Majestic Theatre Building, still further south in the same street, was set alight by the flying embers. A large section of the crowd watched a fireman climb this latter building and dim the flaming flagpole.

Every available lead of hose was brought into use from the Willis .Street side in the endeavour to stem the advance of tlie fire. For some time it seemed that little impression was being made on the blaze, which embraced a steadily increasing block of buildings. By 9 p.m., however, the advance had been cheeked and the men soon drove it back practically to its seal in Victoria House. Front that time on rhe outbreak was entirely under emit ml. The tram service through Willis SI reel was diverted through Jervois Quay shortly after the brigadesmen arrived and all trnllie through Willis Street prohibited. Early in the evening n dense crowd of pedestrians packet! the street. They were driven back first by the showers of embers and the spray blown back from the leads of hose. Later the police put a cordon across the street from Stewart Dawson's corner to the Colonial Mutual Building, anti the crowd was set. back to it. Spectators were held back in

the south to the junction of Mercer Street with Willis Street. A dancing lesson in the Phyllis Bates studio in Willis Stiocl was in progress when smoke was -.ecu coming through the studio door. The dancers carried on, thinking the smoke was steam from lhe kitchen, but made a hurried exit as the flames burst through tlie real' wall. Last night's lire exceeded only as a spectacle in recent years in Wellington by the Social Security blaze seven weeks ago, drew vast crowds of spectators to tlie city. Thousands more watched it from Hie many vantage points on Ihe surrounding hills. The Hotel Windsor was seriously threatened about 9 o'clock, the timber beneath the root catching tire. Rooms were hurriedly evacuated by guests, and some persons had not returned at a late hour last night. Several rooms were made uninhabitable through tlie ceiling being chopped away by firelighters. Water also caused considerable damage. By 10 o’clock the fire was under control, but it was still smouldering at midnight.