Great Fire in Wellington.

Manawatu Herald, 10 December 1898, Page 3

Great Fire in Wellington.

ROYAL OAK DESTROYED. At one o'clock this morning a fire broke out in the Royal Oak hotel and spread so quickly that soon the whole part of the building facing Cuba street was a mass of flames. The firemen were soon on the ground but from the first it was seen that the building was doomed. The wood, of which the main part of the hotel was composed proved highly combustible. Within half an hour the fire reached the brick portion. There was no wind and the fire is supposed to have broken out near the kitchen. The great body of fire was in that vicinity. The fire spread so quickly that there were many narrow escapes. One lodger had to descend from the top story window by a ladder supported on the cross bar of a telegraph pole, a ladder sufficiently long not being available. Several women jumped from upstairs windows on to the pavement below without however sustaining any great injury. Several of the inmates had remarkably narrow escapes, and the majority saved only the scant amount of clothing they stood in. The building was insured for £12,000, and the furniture for £4000.— N.Z. Times. After the fire had been for the most part subdued, the firemen discovered the charred remains of a Mr Greer, a traveller from Sydney, who was lying partly covered on the top story of the new brick wing.