BATTLE WITH FLAMES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 916, 8 March 1930, Page 6

BATTLE WITH FLAMES

POST OFFICE AND STORE DESTROYED OUTBREAK AT URENUI Press Association NEW PLYMOUTH, Today. Fire destroyed the post office and Fitzgerald’s general store at Urentii late last night. The desperate efforts of a bucket brigade saved Howell’s boardinghouse next door, although the wall was scorched. The post office had four living-rooms attached and all were destroyed. Mails and more valuable fittings and most of the postmaster’s furniture were rescued. The fire originated in the store, which was rapidly reduced to ashes. The flames leaped across a right-of-way and soon the post office w r as burning fiercely. The store was insured for £250 and the stock for £l,lOO. The postmaster, Mr. G. Loveridge, had his furniture insured for £250, but the greater part was saved.

From the beginning it was apparent that the task of saving either of the two buildings was hopeless. It was in saving the buildings on either side that the fire-fighters did wonderful work. Only a few feet and a small green hedge separated the post office from the boarding-house. Working desperately in sweltering heat men nailed soaking blankets on that portion of the house nearest the fire, and these were kept wet by throwing buckets of water over them. Some worked from ladders and others forced their way into the roof, broke through the timber in the eaves, and kept water running down the side of the building. By this means a miraculous save was effected, for this morning the side of the house was scorched and charred in places and some of the blankets were burned through.