FATAL FIRE AT WAITARA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81890, 19 November 1906, Page 2

FATAL FIRE AT WAITARA.

THE BRIDGE HOTEL DESTROYED. MAN BURNED TO DEATH. Early on Sunday morning the Bridge Hotel, Waitara, licensed and conducted by Mr W. R. Wil-on, was to.ally destroyed by fire. W'jid being brought to New Plymouth, .arge numbers visited the 1 iver port during! the day, travelling in all kinds of conveyances, bicycles playing no inconspicuous pan.

There was half a gale blowing at the time the fire originated, and in less than half an hour from the discovery of the outbieak, the ho:ei, a somewhat old wooden building, had been reduced to a heap of smoking ruins, and the occupants had but I little time to gather their posbesUions befoie making th/:ir/ exit. From the fact that a telegraph pjle on the opposite side of the street, a fewfeet away from the line of the old Waitara Hotel, was burned to ho ground, it may very fairly be leduced that had the building not been burned a couple of months ago, it must have formed part of Sunday's conflagration ;and with the high wind blowing at the time half the town would have gone. As it was the wind blew the sparks on to sections that the fiery clement had previously denuded of all inflammable I material, and its spread in this direction was barred. A building between the hotel and the river, on the river side, caught on three or four occasions, and the wing-fence leading to the bridge was charred and blackened, nearly destroyed. The

presence of a galvanised iion party I wall lon Mr Jcnliinson's carriage works and showroom undoubtedly | saved this building from destruction, and even with this protection the place was badly damaged, notwithstanding the herculean efforts of a bucket brigade. From details gathered by a News reporter who visited the scene during the day, it seems that a new porter had been engaged only a couple of days previously at the Bridge Hotel, and he had not yet become fully versed in his duties or the requirements of the place. He did not know that Mokau coal, used throughout the house, would smoulder for hours, and that for that very reason it was not safe 10 throw the ashes and cinders from the fireplaces straight into the wooden dustbin, lie was unaware of the usual practice of leaving them in the metal buckets untii they could be doused with water and then emptied. So, on Sunday morning, he tipped the ashes into the wooden dust-bin, and went away about his other duties. This was about a quarter to six o'clock. I Some time afterwards, approximately 0.20 a.m., he noticed smoke coming in the back door of the building, and went to investigate, lie discovered the back of the hotel in flames, and immediately gave the alarm. All the boarders and other inmates were atoused—there were 10 boarders in the hou-e ai the time — and all got clear of the building. The wind was blowing s.might into the back of the hotel, fanning the flames,

winch swept up tnc stairway into the front of the house in a twinkling] Boarders grasped a few of their belongings and decamped, and the licensee and his family only saved bed linen (rum one room and a .-maJI i quaiuity of personal<ffccis. Whilst tae liamos were roaring around, someone ' missed an old man named Tom Magtiirc, a labourer who had come into ! Waitara the clay before (rum Coles--1 by's county contrct, and who had stayed at me hotel on Saturday night. He had been aroused, and had come out jit on to the road, but went back into the burning building, presumably to get Ins swag or Ins cash. One of uic start saw him upB stairs, and told him to huny anil 1 tol.ow lier out of the building, bul tvitleiitly the smoke ovetpowcied him 1:1 his room. His charred lemaitts were found on tac ground amidst . the flames, right below the place wlteie his room, number 11, Had " been. This was a seveie shock to > all around, the deceased having been i an acquaintance of the licensee for

upwards of jo years. When the alarm was first given, Mrs Wilson went to the safe u remove the books and valuables. She was .only partly successful, for the increasing- volume of smoke and the rapid advance of the tiames made n impossible to remain long, and she had to go without some of the con-ic-ins of the safe, which she left open. As before mentioned, the old building burnt fiercely in the risingwind. There was no hope of saving any pan of it owing to the want of proper fire-fighting appliances, bu,t a very active bucket brigade, in which Mr Smyth played a very prominent' part, elevated its Idi'ons p slopping the spread to Mr jenkinson's. Others commenced to remove he stock from this building and from Mr J. Williamson's store adjoining, but fortunately the flames weie checked.

The building' was owned by the 'trustees for Mrs 'i'hu North Queen.-land insurance Company held a policy on the hotel, stuck and furniture, and ihe Sun Insurance Company a line on Ac licensee's personal effects, the total insurance being ,£I6OO, 01 which £ISOO was held by the former company. The licensee informed our reporter ihat ho had been about two years in the house, and 111 that lime had had the hotel renovated throughout; m fact ,ihe painters had not completed their work on the oX'Ci'or, and their materials perished in the names, lie esdmated his loss at £4OO to cxclu-ive of such articles as a liands,mt illumlmucd address presented to him some time ago when he was il; ~«iag redding. M'ss tt'lson lost nearly cvervtiling, nud Mis Wilson got oi|t but few of her belongings. Mr \V. Sampson, whoso billiard saloon and tobaccuiii-l'* shop -\vci'" burned down a few weeks ago in the Waitaia Hotel hie, was again a heavy ln-er by this fire, he having taken over on lease the Bridge Hotel billiard room and put in a stock of tobacco pending the re-erection of his own premises. Waitara people arc again eager.)' discussing the question of forming a lire brigade, and of bringing a water supply inio die town in order to give some "chance of controlling an outbreak of lire. An inquest legaidmg tne lalaliiy is to be opened at Wanara Couttlioii'C this morning.