BIG BLAZE IN WELLINGTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2404, 14 March 1922, Page 2

BIG BLAZE IN WELLINGTON.

TEN TWO-STOREYED HOUSES DESTROYED. FAILURE OF WATER SUPPLY/ Wellington, March 12. One of ihe worst residential area fires in the history of Wellington occurred on Saturday morning, between '7.30 and 9 o’clock. The whole , of Maurice Terrace, on the slopefacing Upper Willis Street, comprising eight large two-storeyed houses, and two houses in McKenzie Terraco, situated just at the hack of -- Wellington Terrace, were totally destroved in a little over an hour.

FIRE BRIGADE HAMPERED. The work of the fire brigade was hampered, as it was in the ease of two great local fires in the past, by file failure of the high-pressure water supply. This was due to a break in the Wainui main. No pressure conld.be obtained frohi near-by hydrants, and it was not till a lead of ,1,500 feet of hose was taken . over the hill from Kelburu that a sufficient head could be obtained to have any effect on the fire. This new supply was reaching the scene shortly after 9 o’clock—over an hour and a-half after the outbreak of the fire. It was concentrated at the north end of the blaze, whenU the .tenth house was going up itM flames, and the efforts of the Cefatral brigade, supplemented by sub- / urbail and auxiliary fire fighters, succeeded a little later in cutting off the fire from further advance towards Mount Street and The Terrace proper. Had it not been for this single lead of high-pressure water from the high level system,concentrated by every appliance at a critical time on the danger zone of the fire, nothing couiil have stopped its progress into A Mount Street and The Terrace. It is hard lo see where the fire would have stopped without such a precious feeder of water, applied in the very nick of time. THE HOUSES DESTROYED. . The eight Maurice Terrace houses were all substantial two-storey resiliences, of a superior type. The two McKenzie Terrace houses were modern, commodious homes. They were a total loss, for nothing was left of the houses burnt but solitary high chimney stacks, standing like the columns of a ruined temple.

ESTIMATED LOSS. > The estimated loss is between £25,000 and £30,000. The loss to the insurance companies is put down at about £20,000.