FIRE AT GISBORNE.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1925, Page 2

FIRE AT GISBORNE.

(MRBOKNK. Dec. 13. Shortly before midnight on Saturday flames were seen issuing from a wooden building in I'eel Street, near tile centre of the town, and before the fire was quelled, two shops and two workshops were gutted, and two more shops were badly damaged, and lire motor cars were destroyed The building was a iwo-storev one, the top storey being used by Me!lor Bros., coach painters and coach body builders, as a paint room, and in it there were five cars undergoing renovation. The blaze was a very spectacular one. (food work hv the Brigade saved the adjoining British Kmpire Hotel. The outbreak appeared to originate on the floor of the painlroom. or in the eeiljug of the shop, near the centre of the building, the whole room soon being a seething inferno. The buildings destroyed were:—l. Thomson's saddlery shop and workshop; W. .1. .Sinclair’s electrician shop and Mellor Bios' paint shop. A small office, used by the Duco service and occupied by F. Bridie, hootmaker. was badly damaged, and two or three rooms on one side of the British Empire Hotel were damaged by water. The insurances, so far as is known are:- On buildings, which were owned bv A. .1. Cook. £1250 in the Commercial f'nion. and £1250 in the Run Office, also £.350 in the Commercial Union on Cox’s motor stock in Mellor'> and £550 in the Commercial Union mi Cox’s plant in Mellor’s. Thompson's is insured for £I2OO in the Commercial Union on stock, fittings and machinery; and Sinclair's for £ISOO in the South British and Commercial f'nion on stock and fittings. Mellor Bros, have tS(X) with the X./C Insurance Coy on the stock. C. 0. Pies.se, on a Chandler ear destroyed had £250 in the Alliance Office. The four other ears destroyed were insured, lmt the amount is not known. Other insurances, if any. are not known.