Fire at Blenheim

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 150, 19 July 1888, Page 2

Fire at Blenheim

INCENDIARY BURGLARS AT WORK. j j PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION. J Blenheim, This Day. j A double fire took place at 2.30 this morning. A Chinese cabinetmaker's place was burned down, and while this fire was raging another fire broke out in a four-roomed house, a quarter of a mile off. An extraordinary circumstance attending the latter fire was that the occupier was accidentally discovered in his backyard gagged, and bound hand and foot. He stated that he had been overpowered by two burglars, bound, and left on the kitchen floor while the men were setting fire to the place. They afterwards decamped. This story has caused tremendous excitement, but is only partly credited. The insurance on the latter building is £100 in the Union, and £40 on the furniture in the South British. The Chinaman's house was insured for £60 in the Equitable. Later. As a further developement of the fire a quantity of furniture and stuff was found planted in the Wesleyan Church grounds. Documents have been found on Longman proving he had just come from Masterton, not Melbourne, as he stated when arrested shortly before noon.