RESCUE HOME BURNED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 106, 26 July 1927, Page 9

RESCUE HOME BURNED

GALE FANS PARNELL BLAZE FIREMEN WORK UNDER DIFFICULTIES FIRE and storm combined to create a vivid picture on Parnell Rise at midnight last night, when the Salvation Army Women’s Home was burned to ashes. Handicapped by an inadequate water supply, the Auckland and Parnell fire brigades managed to save neighbouring houses, which were ignited by the intense heat, and thus relieved a grave situation.

r pTIE outbreak started in the Salvation Army Home's laundry, ■which was detached about six feet from the main building. The home carries on a laundering business, and several city restaurants lost linen, one concern losing 70 tablecloths, burned in the Are. Girls sleeping in the room nearest the laundry were wakened by smoke, and the crackling of burning timber. By that time their own room was partly alight. Hurriedly warning the other inmates, they quitted the building, pursued by an advancing wall of flame. Crippled Women Rescued Of the 30 inmates, five of whom are members of the Army staff, only one, whose room was neap an outside door, saved so much as a shred of personal belongings, other than the clothes she stood up in. Among the occupants were two crippled women, whose rescue was carried out with difficulty, but with the highest courage. One woman went back into her bedroom and dragged a chest of drawers and a box on to the street. She was the only one who saved anything, and among the salvage was a not plant. Hustled into driving rain—the storm was at its height, and raged throughout —the evicted women were in a miserable plight. They found shelter on verandahs until the Parnell police took charge of them, and ultimately they were conveyed in cars provided by the Checker taxi service to the Salvation Army Maternity Hospital, where they were housed for the night. Fire Takes Command Meanwhile the flames had taken absolute control of the burning home. In all its stages the fire was a dramatic spectacle. Rain was falling heavily, diffusing the glare, so that from the city the whole of Parnell seemed to be alight. Motorists driving to the spv>t were warned to keep their cars clear, because in the early stages no water was available, and the tearing northerly threatened to carry the fire across the road. From the laundry the flames took charge of the eastern end of the main building, swept through the first floor and basement, and then enveloped the upper structure of the house. Frightened Horse In a paddock in the front was a horse which neighed piteously and made frantic efforts to leap the fences. It suffered no harm from the ordeal. At first the Parnell and City brigades, which had both turned out, tried to save the west end of the home, but the poor water pressure would not allow the jets to carry against the wind. Advancing closer, the firemen used wooden shields as a protection from the heat, and actually crouched behind these while the other side was charring. Nothing could be done, however, to save the home, and by this time the paintwork on adjoining houses was blistering and charring, so attention was concentrated on them. On the west was a block of wooden flats, in front of which the fence was alight. On the east was a two-storey building owned by Miss McCabe and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. C. Froggart. It caught alight twice, but was saved by the brigade.

IMMINENT DANGER OTHER HOUSES ALIGHT Across the road two houses, one belonging to Mrs. O’Neill, and another to Miss Jagger (the occupants being Mr. and Mrs. W. Tilson) were in urgent danger. The former bouse was at one stage well alight, a gable being burned, and the other house, a large S-roomed dwelling, was scorched until Its front looked like charcoal. Had these houses been involved, at least a block would have gone, as the houses are close together, and the northerly gale was fanning the flames.

Mr. and Mrs. Tilson started to remove their belongings, but were driven out of the house by the urgency of the danger. Mr. Tilson took a few clothes with him, wrapped in a mattress, but a spark dropped on the mattress, and burned the lot. Showers of sparks were carried across Parnell, and pieces of blazing timber dropped as far away as the Manukau Road. Doubtless the saturating rain minimised the danger from sparks. Spectacular Effect Occupants of the flats on the west side removed their belongings. Inside the windows the blinds were scorched under the(j^intense heat. Streams of water poured on to the fronts of the houses saved their destruction, but the firemen could not save fences, outbuildings, or telegraph poles, which all formed minor conflagration-. Within an hour the home was in ruins, and the danger passed as the flames subsided for lack of fuelAt its height the fire was a great spectacle. Flames were carried across Churton Street, and the firemen had to work from Bari Street. How they endured the heat was beyond the imagination of the onlookers, who retreated before the waves of smoke and fire. In the gardens surrounding the home the shrubs caught fire, and a big oak in a corner section flickered into occasional flame. Firemen Triumph To the doggedness and fortitude of the firemen, holding to their stations in what was practically an inferno, can be attributed the escape of the nearby homes, and the avoidance of a more catastrophic blaze. The home, which was burned to ashes, was acquired by the Salvation Army 30 years ago. It was originally the property of the late Mr. Edward Withy, former M.F. for Newton, who had retired from the Hartlepool, England, shipbuilding business of Furness and Withy and come to live in New Zealand. He built the house 40 years ago, and at the time it was one of the finest homes in the city. Heart kauri throughout, it was as sound when destroyed as in the year of its creation, but was so dry that it burned like a bonfire, and only the chimneys nowstand. Built on a slope, the house was three storeys high in the front and two at the back. Origin Of The Fire The Salvation Army carries its insurances from headquarters at Wellington, and particulars could not be ascertained to-day. The origin of the fire is unknown. It began in the laundry, which was closed at 5.15 p.m. yesterday, and one of the staff ventured the belief that a drying line might have collapsed across the fireplace. The inmates of the home will for the present be accommodated in Grey Street, where the Army has property.