SOME FIRE STORIES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 28, 17 February 1937, Page 10

SOME FIRE STORIES

xvn. Fires, even comparatively small ones, are often attended by humorous incidents, sOmetimes by incidents the reverse of humoroufs. I remember on one Cccasion, just on midnight, I was taking one of my frequent nocturnal walks along the Marine Parade, and when nearing Hastings street end I heard the fire bell. Looking round I discerned a huge blaze right on top 6f Cameroa road, overlooking Tennyson. street. It was quite evidently a large blaze, and in the glare one could see the town hill reservoir close alongside, so I picked at once that the house which was burning was a large two-storey residehce belonging to a Mr. Edmund Sutton. I turned and ran for Cameron road as fast as I could. When going up Madeira steps, I overtook Mr. H. O. Piranl, the Hawke 's Bay Herald 's sub-editor, who suffered from gout and who wais slowly and painfully climbing up the steps. He saw me and asked: "Are you going to the fire, Charlie?" I said, "Yes, Mr. Pirani. Do you wish me to do anything for you?" He said, "Yes, if you don't mind. I am alone in the editor's room. The reportef has gone home, and I want a paragraph about the fire if you would kindly do it for ✓ino, as I don't Jike leaving the OfS.ce unoccupied too long, The cables will be coming in shortly. ' ' I said, "All right, Mr. Pirani. I'll bring in a paragraph about the fire aJs soon as I can. " "Get the insurances, cause of fire, and anything else you can," were mv parting instructions. I hastened to- tlie fiTe and f ound the house" doomed. ' A few items of furniture had been saved, but only a few;. A few little kniek knacks, too, that Mr. Sutton treasured very much had also been salvaged, and in connection with the saving'of these a very fuany incident occurred. Mr. Robert Price, the then editor of the Daily Telegraph, was a great friend of Mf. Sutton, and he knew that in the sitting room, on the first floor, opening through partglass doors (called Freneh windows in those days), Mr. Sutton had a number of smali articles which he prized very' much. So -ho went into the sitting room and oollected these for the purposo of removing them to a plhce of 1 safety." A Mr. G. T. Cross, commission agent, another great friend of Mr. Sutton's, at the eame tlme went upstaira to the study overlookitig the sittiug room, where he knetv Mr. Sutton had eome antiques and othe-r emall treaeures stored. .Gathering these up from the mantelpiece, from glass-fronted cases and elsewhere, he pUt them on a circular table cover, gathered the fou.t corners together, and was on the point of goingj downstairs when he noticed a sofa with a bolster on it in the room, and as he had one hand free he went across the room and picked, up the. bolster. But bolsters are awkward thingS to qarry in oue hand, and noticing,that • he was olose to the side wiudow he tbought he would throw the bolster out of the window on to the lawn. Unfortunately, in his exciteiiient, he threw out the tablecover with ornaments, etc., and it had to be just at the time Mr. Robert Price was stepping on to the lawn from the verandah, and -he received the tablecover and contents on his head'. It flattened him out for a time, for ©ven an editor does not want his head to be burdened with too many leading articles at one time. . I came up just in time tq help my namesake back on to his feet, and J can assure you that Mr. Price' was very cross at Mr. Cross. A phrenological chart ' of Mr. Price's head next day would haye been interesting, for he had a few mdre bumps than usual. After I had got back to the office, and related this incident to Mr. Pirani and was writing a paragraph about the fire, a Mr. Ansel Tiflen came into the room with a lantern in his hand and a beaminjq smile on his face, and proCeeded to tell the eame story. Mr.: Ansel Tiffen was one of Napier' s best-known and most popular citizens in those days. In sdmei ways he was rather an eccentric character, but he was as full of fun

aa a schoblboy, and had one of the heartiest laughs I have ever heard in a man, and I have learned to look upon. all men with good hearty laughs as being good sorts. One of Mr. Ansel Tiffen' s eccentri-^ cities was carrying a lantern with him wherever he went at night, After his story of the editor's downfall had fallen rather flat, because Mr. Pirani had just heard it he switched his remarks round to the way in which people get excited when fireg break out anywhere, and the extraordinary things they do when so excited. "You know, Mr. .Pirani," he eait^ "sometimes when the firebell ringa you will see people rush out of their houses in their night clothes. Others wiil put their trqusers on in their ho'uses, and finish the remainder of their dressing in the street, often forgetting to put any boots on-. Now, whenever I hear the firebell at night I get up and look out of the door or window of my room to see where the fire is. If it is far away 1 go back to bed; if it is near, I just dress myself very quietly, get my lantern and fcoddle out to see where the fire is. To-night I saw the fire was very close, but I just dressed cooily and wentup through the gtiwden (how Tiffen's Park) and was one of the first people at the fire." As Mr, Tiffen was talking, he waa walking roiind the robm looking at the books on the library shelves, and when ho came in front of Mr Pirani, the latter noticed something unusual, so he said, "Ohf Mr Tiffen, your handkerchief is hanging out Of your coat-tail pocket. You had better put it in of you will lose it," In those days many people wore swallow~iail coats, with pookets at the bottom instead of the sides, but Mr. Tiffen did not. A look of eiirprise oversplead Mr. Tiffen's face at Mr. Pirani' s remark/ and he said, "But I don't wear a swaliow-tail coat, Mr, Pirani," and' putting his hand down to see what ihe article was, he diseovered that it was ■the tail of his shirt, and that he had got his trousers on back to front. No' one joined more'in ihe laugh which foliowed this discovery than did Mr. Tiffen, and had a laugh many times after When I teased -him about "the tail ot a" shirt, or the story of tfre cool, tranquil man who put his trousers on back to front." ' At another fire, a. very big one this time, the whole of the buildings in Browning street, from Oppoisitie the PoSt Oince (tiie corner now occupied by the A.M.P. building), to Large aiid Townley's furniture shop, on the corner where the South BritiBh Insurance Company's office now is, were all destroyed. I had been heJping with the manual fire engine in Herschell street for about two hours on the night of the fire, and the next morning I went round to view the full extent of the damage. Mr. H. A. Cornford's clerks, I fancy .Mr. Oecil Cornford was amongi them, were busy removing deeds and other papers from the safe, the paper deedfe being badly charred, though those oii parcliment had only shrivelled up. I asked if I could help, and was given a buhdle'to carry. A friend saw me, Mad Called out, "What are vou dpmg, Charlie?" • "Earning the Victoria Cross," I said. "I haVe been into the cehtre of the fir© and am still carrying out good dbeds." I did not even get a laugh, because he did not know what I was> carrying. Another occasidh.on which I missed a reward for gallantry was on the oecasion of the Gaiety Theatre fire somo. years ago. That firei took place, I think, between 10 and 11 a.m. one morning. My feet, not in runmng. shoes. quiekly took me round to Dalton street,. There.was then a la»e leading from Dalton street to right alongside the theatre. At the right side of this lane was a four-roomed cottage. The Gaiety Theatfe was burning fiercely just alongside the cottage, but my soul was burning just as fiercely to do something heroic, so I rushed into the building, saw a bedroom on the right, rushed into that, and saved— a whole set of artificial teeth which I found in a glaks of water on the dressingj table. I carfied these out and handed them to a member of the Fire Police who were engaged in salving the rest of the contents qf the cottage. '