FIRE AT ELLERSLIE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1708, 23 January 1895, Page 2

FIRE AT ELLERSLIE.

TWO RACEHORSES BURNT.

On Saturday morning last a fire broke out in the training stables of Mr J. B. Williamson, the stables were totally destroyed, and two valuable racehorses were burnt to death. Mr Williamson was absent from home, and was in fact on his way up from the South in the e.s. u-airlock, .which arrived in the Manukau on Saturday afternoon, liiere were twelve racehorses in the stables, besides all the acquirements of a well-equipped training establish ment,' the building if self being comparatively new, having been erected little more than twelve months ago. A.t about two o’clock on Saturday morning Mrs Williamson was awakenei and on Jo iking through her bedroom window she observed that the stabbs were on fire, and that the flamis were then breaking thr nigh the r<mC Promptly giving the alarm she herself rushed out to the burning building and •at once took steps to liberate the horses, ten of which, with the assistance of the stable boys, were got out safely, although in a state of great fright. One of the horses, Abel, was got half way out of his box, but in his terror he refused to leave the building and got into the flames, and the hurdle racer Ingorina met a similar fate, both being burnt to death. In a remarkably short time the building was burnt to the ground. Had the .fire not been discovered at a comparatively early stage, and but for the prompt action of Mrs Williamson, it is almost certain that not only all the horses in the stable, but the boys, who slept on the premises, would have been burnt to death Subsequent investigation made by Captain Field, of the Salvage Corps, appears to indicate that the fire broke out in the loft, but how it originated is only a matter of conjecture. Mr Williamson’s loss is a very heavy one, as he had not a shilling of insurance on the property. The racehorse Abel, a valuable colt, halfbrother of the New Zealand Cup winner Impulse, was owned by Mr Andrew Austin; and Ingorina by Ingomar out of Hipporina, had shown good form on the flat as well as hurdles, and : was engaged iu the Takapuna race meeting. He was owned by Mr Lyell, of Onehunga.