SERIOUS FIRE AT KAIAPOI.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2161, 28 January 1881, Page 3

SERIOUS FIRE AT KAIAPOI.

Early this morning nearly the whole of a line ot stores on the west side of the North road, Kaiapoi, were destroyed by Are. The alarm was given about 2 a.m., and one of the first to discover the fire was Mr Geering, the tinsmith, who resides opposite the scene of the conflagration. He was at work up to that hour repairing urgent work for a threshing engine. The glare was seen by him in a shop then being prepared for Mr Miller, bootmaker, who was to remove his stock in to it to-day. This formed part of a double shop and tenement of four rooms, the other shop being occupied by Mr J. Ayres, tobacconist and hair-dresser. It has been the opinion of several that the fire really started here, but this will probably form the subject of enquiry. These shops were fairly in flames before the hand and steam fire engines could be got into play, although very little delay took place in the arrangements made by the fire brigade under Mr Superintendent Blackwell, who proceeded to attack the fire to the right and left. To the right it attacked another double shop, the nearest one occupied by Mr Johnson, baker, and the other by Mr E. Hornby, cabinetmaker and confectioner. 'To the left the general store of Mr B. Allen was in imminent danger, as the flames broke through Mr Ayres’ wall, and were fanned by a strong breeze on to the roof of Allen’s premises. With considerable promptness the Johnson and Allen families were warned and escaped, but without being able to eavo any effects whatever. Allen’s store rapidly caught fire, and with it the brigade held a long struggle, with a view to quelling the raging element before it reached the right-of-way dividing the store from Mr Isaac Wilson’s residence. At one time this seemed to be accomplished, when the wind springing up defied the best efforts of the brigade, and the fire bursting Allen’s wall lighted the roof of Wilson’s house, and this, from which most of his furniture had been rescued by the delay gained, was speedily a mass of flame. At this time, with the shops and outbuildings attached on fire, the fire bore a very formidable aspect, the heat threatening in the rear the Oddfellows’ Hall, Mr J. Brigg’s house, cottages occupied by Messrs Ballon and Pookwood, and, in the direction of the wind, Mr T. Veyeey’s cottages and Mr J. Lowthian Wilson’s house, Vesey’sand Packwood’s wore well saved by a party of volunteers, who, with blankets and a plentiful supply of water from the wells near, kept the roofs and walls cool. Wilson’s house was kept thoroughly wetted with a hydronette, and the showers of sparks foil harmlessly upon it. Having arrived at the junction of North rood with Hilton street, in the direction of the wind, the further progress of the fire was stayed. On the opposite side of the North road, Mr Alexander’s store, Mr Goering’s, and Mr McDonald’s boarding-house wore scorched with the heat. The progress of the fire to the right was effectually curtailed at Hornby’s shop, which was partly gutted.. The total insurance, eo far as ascertained, are, South British, about £1000; New Zealand, £l5O j Northern, £200; National, £7O; and Colonial an amount not ascertained. All the properties were insured to a certain extent.