FIRES AT NAPIER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1545, 29 August 1905, Page 4

FIRES AT NAPIER.

Saturday’s Napier Herald states : An alarm of fire was given about 10 o’clock last night, the cause being an outbreak in the large wooden building near the railway station owned by Messrs Nelson Bros., leased by Messrs Conroy and Co., and at one time occupied by the latter firm as a wholesale and retail butcher’s shop. The fire was discovered by Mr Prank Williams, bricklayer, who lives in one of Mr Stone’s houses adjoining. On his way home Mr Williams noticed a glare, and, having given the alarm, gained access to the building by the back entrance from Thackeray street. He found a heap of burning macrocarpa branches and twigs on the floor, near one of the walls, and at onco proceeded to stamp the fire out. Mr Williams had practically succeeded in his efforts when several members of the Napier Pire Brigade arrived on the scene, and speedily had a stream of water playing upon the smouldering mass. There is every reason to suspect a deliberate attempt at . incendiarism, and it seems that within the last few weeks several incipient fires have been discovered and suppressed in the same building. There was a strong smell of kerosene about the premises, especially at the back gate, where the fragments of a broken bottle were found on the footpath. • The brigade received a second call at 2 a.m., a fire having been discovered in the washhouse at the rear of the Clarendon Hotel. No time was lost by the brigade, and in less than a quarter of an hour the fire was got under, no damage of any extent having been caused.