TWO HOUSES BURNED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 833, 29 November 1929, Page 18

TWO HOUSES BURNED

THIRD BADLY DAMAGED OUTBREAK AT WELLINGTON Press Association WELLINGTON, Thursday. What is probably the most serious fire that has ever taken place at Day's Bay occurred this afternoon, when two large structures on the main road were demolished with all their contents, and a third large house was very badly burned on one side. Mr. H. Downs's tearooms and boardinghouse, a total of 26 rooms, was destroyed. Miss Hawthorne's residence of six rooms was destroyed, and Mr. A. Knowles's residence was badljscorched. The Are broke out at the rear of Mr. Downs's premises a little before 3 p.m. The kitchen was soon well alight and as there were no means of checking the flames at the time they very quickly spread throughout the whole of the large building. They were aided by a fresh breeze. The occupants of the premises had no time to save anything, and barely had time to save themselves. In the course of 10 minutes or a quarter of an hour the whole of the building was a seething furnace of flames that leapt 30ft into the air, and which were easily visible from the northern end of the city and the western heights. The volunteer Are brigade from East bourne did what it could with a chemical engine, but the dimensions of the tire had gone past such a feeble resource. The flames then leapt on unchecked.