A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19996, 13 January 1927, Page 10

A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

BLAZE AT CHRISTCHURCH. WHOLE BLOCK THREATENED. CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE DONE. (Special to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 12. A destructive fire broke out at 1.30 this afternoon in the workrooms of Turnbull and Jones, electrical merchants, at the corner of Oxford and Cashel streets. By the time the outbreak was discovered the storerooms, which contained a large quantity of inflammable material, were a raging furnace. The building in which the outbreak occurred contained quantities of insulated wire and cables used for electrical purposes, and many empty cases. The building is a two-storeyed one, of corrugated iron. Flames were bursting through the roof when the outbreak was discovered. In a very short time the fire had eaten its way through to the rear of the premises occupied by J. Trist, tentmaker, of 81 Cashel street, which abut on the workrooms of Turnbull and Jones. A brick wall separates the workshops from the Canterbury Jockey Club's premises. The men in the . workshop of Turnbull and Jones’s shop facing Oxford terrace, fought with buckets the flames which were breaking through on the wooden portion above the rear brick w.all behind which an inferno raged. Dense clouds of smoke were whirled away by a strong easterly breeze, and attracted a' large crowd of onlookers. The flames, fanned by the wind, took a firmer grip on Trist’s premises, and the marqueedrying room was damaged by smoke and water

Other business premises in the block, which is known as the Union Buildings, suffered chiefly through water, which had io ’>• poured in to save the whole block. 8co”. -fter 2 o’clock the fire had spread right through the shed at the back of Turnbull and Jones into the rear of the Union Buildings, the tenants of which included the Presbyterian Bookronm, Trist’s, White Bros., land agents. Hunt and Co., fruiterers, Moon and Williams, and Mrs Prestidge, costumier. The fire started there in the root, and in a very short time it was impossible to gain access to th<* offices on the second floor, in its course the fire destroyed Henderson Bros, rope store, a large quantity of rope being burned. By half-past two the firemen had the outbreak in hand. The Union Buildings suffered severely. The upstairs rooms at the rear were gutted, and the ,afters charred. The front rooms overlooking Cashel street, were damaged only slightly and a large collection of books belonging to the Presbyterian office escaped narrowly. Besides damage through water, the Chinese fruiterers suffered severely ir the loss of the banana ripener. in it was stored fruit valued at over £IOO. The Union Buildings are owned by Mr L D. Budd, who has an office there. Messrs Turnbull and Jones’s premises being of brick, were not damaged. ■ The whole of the premises occupied by Turnbull and Jones are insured as ioliows, with the Royal Exchange Assurance Company: —Front shop and budding £6OO, contents of front shop £16,000, and workshop £650. Mr Trist’s stock is insured for £3900 with the Standard Insurance Company. The building is included in an £BOOO policy held by the British Traders’ Insurance Company, which covers a block ot buildings from No. 80 to 00 in Cashel street.-

OUTBREAK AT HASTINGS

BRICK BUILDING DESTROYED

(Peb United Pbeoß Association.) HASTINGS, January 12,

Last night a large brick building in Russell street, Hastings, owned by Mr John Blake and occupied by Messrs A. E. Bullen and Co., auctioneers, was destroyed by fire. Mr Bullen went into the incubating room to trim the lamps, and, the match burning his fingers, he threw it away. The floor matting became alight, and in trying to put this out with a sack he upset an incubator lamp, which set fire to a quantity of inflammable material. The fire spreading swiftly, Mr Bullen made his escape. The contents, valued at about £SOO, were destroyed, besides goods awaiting sale. The upper floor, occupied _by the. National Service Club as a social hall, was also destroyed, ■ with its furniture and fittings, valued at about £2OO. Mr Bullen’s insurance was £SOO on the stock and £250 on the incubators and accessories. There was also an insurance of £ISOO on the building. The National Service Club’s loss was covered by insurance.