THE FIRE ALARM LAST NIGHT.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3659, 6 April 1883, Page 2

THE FIRE ALARM LAST NIGHT.

At 12 o'clock last night considerable excitement AA r as caused iv toAvn by a fire alarm being raised. The district school bell Avas first heard ringing out its note of warning, Avhich Avas quickly taken up at the brigade station, and in a comparatively short space of time the manual engine and a hose reel were despatched in charge of a number of firemen Avho had assembled Avith considerable promptitude. Some slight confusion pi-evailed at first, no one seeming to haA-e any idea of the locality of the fire, and enquiries of a suggestive character were freely made concerning the identity of the person (or something of that sort) Avho had been guilty of "dragging people out of their warm beds for just nothing." . It Avas not "just nothing," howeA'er, although fortunately only a short remove from it, for on tAvo of the firemen, Sub-Superintendent Gilbcrd and Branchmaii Morely, proceeding along Milton road it Avas discovered that a fire had broken out in the kitchen of one of Mr Boavcs' cottages, occupied by Mr Mossman, but the flames, not having obtained much lieadAA-uy, wore quickly extinguished. The fire had broken out in a corner where oil and other inflammable articles Avere stored, and it is belic\"ed must haA'e been caused by rats gnawing some Avax matches Avhich were lying about, as there had ' not been a fire lighted iv the • house for some days past, the occupant haA-ing been boarding out in the absence of his wife. Very little damage was done to the property. The house is insured in the Union office.