THE CHRISTCHURCH FIRE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2110, 8 February 1908, Page 2

THE CHRISTCHURCH FIRE.

CONQUERED AT LAST. UNMATCHED DESOLATION IN THE CITY. HUNDREDS OUT OF WORK. LOSSES TOTAL £500.000. Press Association. WELLINGTON, February 7. A telephone message received hero a 3 this morning stated that tho Christchurch firo was gradually burning itself out. Tho places destroyed aro Asby, Berg and Co., tailors; Jiulbert, Haymaker, and Co., batters, etc.; Freeman’s Ltd., confectioners; Strange and Co’s; White Hart Hotel; It Malcolm and Co., D. Benjamin and Co.j and the whole of the D.I.C. CHRISTCHURCH Feb. 7. The most disastrous fire lor many years bro'ke out last night at 10 o’clock. It began in the furniture department of Strange and Co., a lar 4r o drapery establishment at Hie corner of High and Lichfield streets. SI range’s is a wedgo of buildings fronting cast and south, and running west down Lichfield street, and northward along High street. 11l Lichfield Meet there are many wholesale warehouses, and in High street adjoining some of the most important retail businesses in town. Tho fire had evidently got establisliectafedme its discovery, and soon hgggßsSßßßgProad. All the firo apere soon out. and tho brii .<> taxed to their utmost I at soon found the contract

Tim lire ran with marvellous rapidity from Stango’s three storey brick bidding to Aialcolm and Co.’s warehouse, Lichfield street, thence to tho back portion of Hayman and Co., and after ravaging these warehouses attacked tho D. 1.0. Tins WBl me jit runs right through from to Lichfield street, and was so3n .it mass of flames, which, travelling with bewildering rapidity, seized Ashby, Berg and Co’s ironmongery store, gutting it in a short time. All tho while tho fire fiend was at work in the D.I.C. and buldings already mentioned. Things were now looking very serious. All tho water tanks in the vicinity had given out, and the engines had to bo taken to ho Avon "The delay was disastrous. The firo flicked up Tribe’s drapery, Hulbert tea-rooms, Williamson’s drug store, and Haymaker’s tailoring, Freemans and Tucker’s jewellery shop, and gathering fierceness and force as l went began tho attack on the White Hart hotel. This fine buldmg was brick and white stone, but a combrick and white sone, but a comparatively few minutes served to see it ruined and gutted from floor to ceiling. . c . Hallenstein’s clothing factory followed, and the flames were only stayed here by the collapse of Hallenstein’s, which allowed the brigade to get at the walls of Beath and Co. s drapery store. This was saved, an its salvation meant also that of the A I hotel at the corner of Cashel and Colombo streets. Meanwhile the fire was getting in its work with horrible vigor in the centre of the block, which is pierced by rights-of-way leading to the wholesale houses already mentioned. The fire worked like the rays of cancer, onlv with lightning speed, tongues going out and licking up tho buildings in irregular order, but in the main were confined to parts of the block indicated. . Warded’s fine building s facing High steet, at the corner, escaped so far as tho front portion is concerned, but the back was gutted. Alain’s bootshop also went, and tlie Anglo-Special bicycle shop. Bv half-past 2 the fire was conquered, but not before it had leit a scene of desolation unmatched in the city’s history. Tlie loss is tremendous and cannot be estimated yet. It is variously stated at a quarter to half a million- . In the course of the day the insurances will be available. Ihese are said to bo large. At least one thousand people have been thrown out of work.

A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT.

AN IMMENSE FIRE

EFFORTS OF THE FIRE BRIGADE USELESS.

CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 7. The first made its first' appearance soon after ten o’clock, and was noticed by a policeman and by passersby. An alarm was given, and the brigade turned out with creditable speed, in view of the fact that the men were holding their annual dinner at tho Lichfield Street station..

The fire leaped through the building with remai'kable speed, and ten minutes after the first flame had been noticed the three-storeyed brick building with a frontage of about two chains, and a depth of over three chains, was BLAZING FROM TOP TO BOTTOM with a fierce heat that drove all but the firemen from the portion of the street immediately in front. The brigade got the water on, but the jets made no apparent impression, and the building, used by the furnishing department of Messrs Strange and Co.’s business, contained a vast amount of inflammable material, and the tongues of flame that were flung high into tho air lit up the city. Tho intense heat would have rendered futilo tho most determined efforts to prevent the spread of the fire, and the crowd, which was blocking all the streets in the vicinity, felt assured that a spectacle with more than the usual share of thrill was in prospect. Tho crowd was not disappointed, as before 10.30 the fire had attacked Messrs Ashby, Bergh and Co.’s premises, which touched the burning building at the back, and had made its appearance in High Street. This hardware warehouse became A RAGING FURNACE within a few minutes, and a clatter of explosions, with an occasional dull reverberation, accompanied by spurts of flame from the windows, showed tliat cartridges were exploding. Tho lower front windows held out for a few minutes, but then they went, and spurts of flame came out over the footpath. Tho heat made adventurous, even a hasty passing along the opposite footpath, and willing hands commenced to remove as much stock as possible from the premises further north, tor it was clear that they weie doomed. . Tho brigado was working, and working hard, a number of firomcn having put in an appearance, and the public, assisting loyally, but its efforts produced no results at all as far as could be seen. The brigade was simply unable to cope with the outbreak, and some thousands oi people received a lesson that will not casilv be forgotten regarding tile advantage of a decent higli-prcssure water-supply. , it , Tho lire worked along the rool from Ashby, Bergh and Co.’s, and at 10.30 made its appearance at an upper window in the White Hart Hotel. The glass cracked and fell out, there was a fierce inrush of air. and a flicker and then a flame at the next window. Twelve minutes later the hotel was burning along the upper storev. and ' BLAZING FRAGMENTS from tho windows were falling into the street. A fireman directed a hose into the interior from a perilous position on a balcony, and received a round of applause from the crowd, but the flames continued to travel. The premises between Ashby Bergh’s and the "White Hart went one after tho other. Freeman’s confectionery shop, with the tea rooms already ablaze, became

A MASS OF "WHITE FLAME a few minutes after the firo first- got hold

Tribe and Co.’s and Hulbert and Sleymaker’s premises held out for a while, but then succumbor and burned fiercely.

Williamson and Co.’s (chemist) •shop went, and thou Tucker's jewellery alio]) next door was swept by tho fire. In tho meantime tho firo had been making disastrous progress in Lichfield Street. The flames jumped a right of way from Messrs Strange and Co.’s building, and ran through Aialcolm and Co.’s premises. Next came llayman and Co.’s warehouse, which escaped for a while, i’ho fire worked round behind, however, crossed another right-of-wav and entered Benjamin and Cods Hi roe-storeyed warehouse. The brigade received a good doal of criticism during tbo evening, but uoiic of it quite so trenchant as that which .followed this advance of the (ire. Water was running short, tho tanks having been oiiinped out, and the railway steamer having only just •Luted to pump from tho river, but Uierc were jets available in Lichfield Street, and they were being used on Malcolm and Co.’s buildings, then merely a frame of scorched walls containing a

MASS OF GLOWING ASHES, as there was nothing to bo saved there, whereas it seemed to the observers that one jet would have saved Benjamin and Co.’s premises. The let was not supplied,, and the flames appeared at tho windows in tho ton dorey, and soon engulplied the whole building m a red ruin.

-Next came the D.I.C. buildings stretching right through from Cashel Street to Lichfield Street, and it was evident that there was scant hone of saving that. 1 • T 1 ! 0 s , ocno looking down the narrow light of ways eading down Lichfield street was a lurid one. Down the first could be seen the back portion of the White Hart Hotel a roaring flames ; Strange’s building on the left was throwing up tongues of bluish flames, accompanied .by fi erco .‘nd V-?’ d °i n -Vr other 6ide Malcota and Co. s building was blazing ” Down the next -right-of-way fiould be seen a portion of Wardell’s buildmg and tho rearmost part of the A lute Hart Hotel, both VOAHTING FORTH FLAAIES and throwing showers of sparks and led-hot fragments over on the next budding. Hayman and Co.’s premises were burning on the right, the flames working forward from the back-, and Benjamin and C’o.’s building lit up the left. . The feature, of the fire after midnJ l r "ti tllo .destruction of the ~T.h ere been hopes that this building would be saved, and the brigade seemed to be devoting its best efforts to this end, but the fire won handsomely.

Just before 12.30 a.m. a flicker of file appeared at an upper window facing Lichfield Street, and then the flames came with a rush, and in a few minutes the whole of the front was blazing. The fire went back steadily and irresistibly right through to Cashel Street and gutting the build-

The N.Z. Clothing Factory, i n Cashel Street, next shared in the fate of its larger neighbors, and supplied the hist big blaze of the night. At- 2.30 a.m. the fire was in hand, and the owners of the other premises m the block breathed again. The flames had ea-en the heart of the best block in the city, but they had not destroyed all that they might have reached, and the absence of wind liad been the chief factor in producing this result

un pUN.'.DIN, February 7. ifie following insurances on the Christchurch fire are obtainable -locally :

Ashy, Bergli and Co (complete), iSorth British £3500, Roval Exchange £3500, Victoria’ £2500 Queenland £ISOO, South British xorkshire, Royil, and Commercial Union £2OOO each, Phoenix, National Liverpool, London ,and Globe £IOOO each, total £25,000. Strange and Co.’s linoleum warehouse : London and Lancashire £2500, Aliance £3OO, Liverpool, London, and Globe, Norwich Union, and Yorkshire £2OOO each, South British £IOOO, Sun £IOOO. The D.I.C. insurances total £Bl,500, of which the particulars are unavailable.

3XPERT OPINION OF THE LOSS.

(Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 7. . Experts say that the total loss nust approximate £500,000, and figires regarding the insurance losses 'onfirm this statement; £200,000 is ilready ia dead loss to local insurance ompanies, and the amount will be argely swelled by insurances held by Lloyd’s. In addition to the sum lamed, which takes into- consideration buildings already ( destroyed, here will be heavy claims from companies sustaining partial damage, he extent of which is hardly realised it present, for the sum of £200,000 .ias been lost by buildings totally destroyed. Lloyds are estimated to lold £50,000. The total insurance loss will doubtless reach £300,000, ind the loss over and above that will probably reach half a million.

THE POSSIBLE CAUSE. (Special to Times.) a WELLINGTON* Feb. 7. iv if™ 1 ! 05 t ’ :e Christchurch lire, a Wellington correspondent, signing hmiself "Expert,” writ-4- to the Post as follows:— "The recent calanntous outbreaks of fire at Timaru and Christchurch are -renorted to have commence. li u the linoleum departments at both places. It may not- perhaps, be generally known that goods of which"'linseed oil forms i component part- are especially liable to rapid oxidisation, and conserniw H ti ° ,ltl - v packed or °-li ed L T , lls characteristic, together Hith the hot weather generally prevailing, may prove to have been the originating cause of these disasters, and holders of stocks of these goods m our large warehouses would do wisely m exercising every care to prevent over-heating, and institute timely and vigilant inspection so as to prevent a serious outbreak of fire ;ii “16 city. A lire on one of the colonial steamers some time ago was supposed to have originated through the ignition of linoleum, that was -iTemg carried as cargo, and an officer of the vessel told me at- the time that there was no doubt in his mind that the fire broke out in the linoleum. Another officer of a direct steamer says he is always very charv about oilskins as cargo, especially if they are tightly rolled or packed. Such goods, -he says, are carried on the shelter deck, where they can be easily got- at.