LARGE HOUSE GUTTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 1

LARGE HOUSE GUTTED

BIG FIRE AT PENROSE EARLY MORNING OUTBREAK Fire completely gutted an unoccupied 11-roomed house at Penrose shortly after four o’clock this morning, all that was left being a heap of smouldering ruins and twisted iron, and the skeleton of the front walls, which are liable to collapse at any moment. The house, which was formerly owned by Mr. J. S. Dickson, ex-M.P. for Parnell, was the property of Mr. M. Segedin, of Ellerslie, but was unoccupied. It was situated at the corner of the Great South Road and the Peni ose-Panmure Road. It had just been renovated at a cost of about £450 and tenants were to have taken possession today. The fire had evidently been burning for some time before it was noticed and the alarm given, for the flames had a firm hold when the Ellerslie and Remuera Fire Brigades arrived, and it was impossible to save the house. Two chimneys stand up gauntly in the midst of smouldering and charred woodwork and twisted roof-iron. The back portion, where it Is believed the tire started, has been razed to the ground, the only standing remains in addition to the chimneys being the bay of one front window and the framework of the wall. A portion of the roof has fallen to one side and is upside down. The ruins were still smouldering at a late hour this morning.