GISBORNE FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 135, 5 December 1938, Page 11

GISBORNE FIRE

MUCH DAMAGE DONE

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

GISBORNE, This Day,

Only the splendid work by the brigade prevented the destruction by fire last night of the Coronation Hotel block, the largest block of wooden buildings in Gisborne. The fire demolished a two-storey corrugated iron storeroom, occupied by Booth, Macdonald, and Co., Ltd., and seriously damaged the showroom, jointly occupied by Booth, Mac Donald, and Co., and T. C. Nicol and Sons, offices occupied by-.W. Lissant Clayton, sharebroker, E. F. Hooper, Maori interpreter, and two unoccupied offices.

The fire was discovered about 10 o'clock by a porter employed at the hotel, the flames then having a strong1 hold on an adjoining building. The brigade had to contend with flames leaping high into the air and threatening the hotel. Rooms on different corners of the hotel were actually reached by the flames and damaged, and at one stage the flames broke through the windows of the diningroom. Constant pressure of water on the threatened areas, however, prevented the spread of the flames.

Booth, Macdonald and Co. and Nicol and Sons are both heavy losers, but the extent of the damage and the insurances are not yet available.

the man was too severely injured to be brought to the city.

Before the crash the car struck a series of potholes in the road and got out of control. It swerved to both sides of the road and then careered over the bank, landing with its wheels uppermost. Three young children who were also in the car were affected by shock, but were uninjured.