BIG FIRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 650, 30 April 1929, Page 13

BIG FIRE

TWELVE room house 1 ABLAZE PONSONBY OUTBREAK Early this morning fire broke oU t in a two-storeyed house, No. 3 Arthur Street, Ponsonby, and completely gutted the interior of the buildingTlie house, one of 12 rooms, is „*ned by Mrs. K. Gavegan, but has Jjen unoccupied for the past eight monthsSext door neighbours were likened in the early hours of the morning by the sound of something crashingOn investigating they saw clouds „( smoke issuing from the building, file alarm was given at 3.17 a.m., but when the Ponsonby Fire Brigade arrived on the scene the flames had a jood hold. After a desperate fight, the firemen succeeded in confining the fire to the building, but not before the interior had been completely gutted. The house was furnished at the time, and thus the loss is a double one. The house was insured with the South British Office for £9OO, and the contents for £650 in the same office. It was thought at first that the outbreak had been caused by an incendjarist, but it has now been established rhat the cause was due to the electric wiring fusing. The crashing sounds heard by neighbours were probably pictures falling from the walls.