FLAMES BEAT FIRE-FIGHTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 522, 27 November 1928, Page 1

FLAMES BEAT FIRE-FIGHTERS

Many Brigades Battle with Great Blaze in Wellington Mart Area LOW PRESSURE OF WATER Press Association WELLINGTON, To-day. FOR several hours last night Wellington was treated to the grim spectacle of one of the greatest conflagrations seen in the city for years. At 10 o'clock great billows of flame rolled up from the Blair Street qtiarter, off Courtenay Place, in which are situated fruit marts and other produce warehouses. A roaring, devouring sea of flame raged through half the street block. Estimates of the damage range from £200,000 to £250,000. All the suburban brigades, with every available fire-engine, took part in the battle with the flames. The low pressure of the water supply considerably hampered their work.

The premises involved more or less in wholesale destruction are: Blair Street W. Burbridge and Co., fruit auctioneers and produce merchants. Thompson Brothers. Ltd., fruit auctioneers and general rchants. Tolan Printing Con., uy, printers. Open Warehouse Company, crockery and fancy goocjp importers. Toop and Neilson, tea and general merchants. G. Halstead, agent. Allen Street Laery, Beveridge and Co., wine, spirit and tobacco merchants. Laery’s Buildings, containing Campbell and Sons, carriers; Laery and Co., fruit auctioneers, produce aq(l general merchants; Johnson and Eglin, manufacturers’ agents; Griffin, Savage and Co., manufacturers’ representatives. George Thomas and Co., merchants and fruit importers. Browne Brothers and Geddes, Ltd., wholesale manufacturing confectioners. Wakefield Street Victoria Buildings,' containing Goldingham and Beckett, Ltd., general merchants; and Highways Transport Co. Teagle, Smith and Sons, Ltd., merchants and indentors. N.Z. Platers, Ltd., electroplaters and manufacturers. Hayward Brothers and Co., Ltd., rubber and oil merchants. W. H. Dray, wat.erpoof and clothing manufacturer. The insurances are not available. The complete block, bounded by Courtenay Place, Blair Street, Allen Street and Wakefield Street, Is approximately 100 yards square. Most of the buildings are brick. BURNING FIERCELY At first the fire was confined to the big brick three-storied premises owned by Thompson Bros., proprietors of the Wellington Fruit and Produce Exchange, which runs through from Blair Street to Allen Street, with big frontages to both thoroughfares. At 10 o'clock the fire was deepseated in the centre of this building, and was undoubtedly of great extent and fierce intensity. Half an hour later the brigade was working hard in both Blair and Allen Streets, but did not appear to have water enough. At the northern end of Thompson’s building an 89ft ladder was elevated into position and rested on "the parapet of the adjoining three-storied structure. The crowd cheered the firemen as they mounted to the top to attack the fire in the flank, but their leads had no apparent effect so fiercely was the fire burning. Engines were now coming on the scene from all quarters, hav-

ing been summoned from suburban stations. Lead after lead was run out and by 11 o'clock the whole city plant was in operation; but it was not enpugh. Meanwhile ominous coils of smoko were rising from the building in Wakefield Street where Teagle, Smith and Son's premises were evidently ablaze.’ The inflammable stock was burning furiously. The fire thus spread in three directions, and, while the brigade was battling against heavy odds, there was still another outbreak in Blair Street, when Tolan’s printing works and the neighbouring premises took fire. Truly, the brigades had their hands more than full, and the equipment, which a few days ago was pronounced one of the finest in New Zealand, proved unequal to the occasion. Luckily there was no wind at any time during the four hours that the fire raged most fiercely. About two o’clock the conflagration had burned itself past its greatest intensity, and the brigades managed to bring it under control.

VIVID SPECTACLE

BEACON FOR VAST CROWD HEAT AND ODOURS ( Special to THE SUN) WELLINGTON, To-day. Tired homeward-bound passengers, when they saw the ruddy glare of the conflagration in Courtenay Place, shortly after 10 o'clock, left the cars and their fares and rushed to the scene of the fire, and, with the theatre-goers the crowd must have numbered well over 20,000. Great volumes of smoke roared up a hundred feet heavenward, while the huge flares lit up the buildings for a great distance around, and the aura coul be seen fully 15 miles away. TONGUES OF FIRE The fire started about the centre or Thomson’s Building, which has frontages to both Allen and Blair Streets, and spread outwards to both streets. Window panes crashed to the footpath below, and the tongues of fire leaped out of the holes like demons eager to escape. Overhead sparks and cinders, more numerous than stars in the Milky Way, floated right across Courtenay Place. The water supply was inadequate for a long time, and great curls of black smoke began to pour from the premises of Messrs. Teagle, Smith and Sons, motor replacement specialists, in Wakefield Street, and a few minutes later the crash of glass proclaimed that the fire would have to be fought from a third frontage. Inside everything was red. Before the floors and roof caved in the cinders and sparks rained down the lift wells looking like a red hailstorm and i the firemen played the hoses into the smoke. When the hoses were shifted ; they drenched the fire police, who happened to be in the line of fire, and if shifted toward the ceiling the streams of water ricocheted down like a cloud burst. CHINESE SPRINT The fire had now spread from the three-storeyed brick building toward ; Courtenay Place, the shopping area. and when a Chinese warehouse and i printing w-orks soon became the prey ! of the fire demon, the flames caused the Chinese to move surprisingly fast as they tried to save their effects. Just before 12.30 the fire broke out anew, and floors began to fall in, reminding one of a battery in action. Then a roof tumbled down amongst ; the debris. An hour later the whole of the space between Blair and Allen Streets, with the exceptions of the \ two corners which adjoined Wakefield Street, and the buildings which fronted Courtenay Place, was ablaze. The outbreak at Teagle’s had been conquered, but the fire was still raging freely as before. The fire burnt for four hours before the brigade got it under control, and at noon to-day the buildings were I a mass of blackened rafters, and the i debris was still smouldering | The heat. of the conflagration scorched the faces of the great crowd watching the outbreak from opposite sides of the streets, and gave them, perhaps by way of entertainment, a variety of odours which varied front burnt hams and overbaked onions to cremated oranges. Numerous hydrants burst, and soaked onlookers, i It was a magnificent spectacle, and a [grand display of fireworks.