FIRES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9151, 21 May 1908, Page 5

FIRES.

Per Press Association. Auckland, May 21. A fire, which might have had serious consequences hut for the smart work of the "brigade, occurred in the telegraph office this morning. As the telephone exchange clerk was coming off duty at 1.47 a.m. he found his progress to the, stairway leading to Shortland Street. blocked by°thick volumes of smoke evidently proceeding from the direction of the despatch room. He gave the alarm at once, and the Central Brigade (under Superintendent Woolley) were on the scene within three minutes. A door leading to the upper storeys was broken in and the flames located in the lavatory adjoining the despatch room where they were rapidly gaining hold. The brigade, however, succeeded in confining the outbreak to two small rooms, but not before they were completely gutted, roof and walls being burned away.