GREAT FIRE IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume I, Issue 48, 11 February 1879, Page 3

GREAT FIRE IN CHRISTCHURCH.

+ One of the most destructive fires that has occurred for some time in Christchurch broke out shortly before six o'clock on Thursday evening last in a large wooden building 60ft .by 120ft. It was occupied by Messrs Sclanders and Co. (the owners), Messrs fcSorenson and Co., and Messrs Sargood, Son, andEwen, all soft good merchants. The downstairs part of the building was occupied as offices and warehouses by the two first named firms, and the whole of the upper part of ihe building was in the occupation of iSargood, Son and Ewen. The fire oommenced upstairs in the back of the warehouse of Sorenson, next to the fire brigade station, and it was at first thought that it was this buiding which was on fire. Dense volumes of smoke, however, soon poured out of the windows in every direction. The Brigade burst in the front door, but were driven back by the smoke. The fury of fire increased with wonderful rapidity, and notwithstanding the efforts of the brigade and the powerful engines, the entire place was gutted, and everything utterly destroyed. Nothing whatever was saved frpm Sargood's — neither books nor papers, but most of them were saved from the lower part of the building. Mr Brown, the manager of Sargood's,is in Dunedin, and their insurances are unknown, but they are supposed to be covered by about jeiO,OOO,in what offices i9 not known. The other insurances are as follows : Saunders Brothers' stock - iNe.v Zealand £4000 ; South British, £2500 ; Standard, £1000 ; Liverpool and London and Globe, £1000; building. New Zealand, £1000 ; South liritish, £500 ; Colonial, £1000. Sorenson's stock— £3ooo in the Standard.