FIRE AT WELLINGTON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 27 March 1907, Page 2

FIRE AT WELLINGTON.

Per Press Association. Wellington, March 2(1. A lire broke out in a three-storey wooden building in the centre of tin city this morning. It was occupied b\ Messrs. Field, Luekie and Toogood, law vers, and other tenants. The tire war conlined to the building, which was prac tically gutted. Owing to the break ir the Waiimi-o-mata water main, wliici has not yet been repaired, the watei pressure at first was not very strong but when the steam pumping engine got to work the flames were (|uicklv extin finished. Fortunately, there was m wind, or the wooden block of building burning would probably have gone This is the livst fire since the litv. in the water service.

The. building was owned by the estate of the late Mr. W. A. Fitzherbert, and was occupied by the following tenants : —Johnston and Burns, indent agents, insured for ,CSO in the Xmthern i»..ice; Harris and Bastin, machinery importers, Co!) in the Northern; Field, Luckie, and Toogood, lawyers, £101) in the New Zealand; C. A. McDonald (Hercules Machine Co.), £25 in Iho New Zealand; A. T. Clarke, acocuntant, .CIO in the Victoria; (J. F. Wilson, insurance agent, £IOO in the North British. The following arc uninsured: Holdship, barrister; Page and Anderson, builders; Woolli and Co., manufacturers. The following are uncertain: W. M. Hutchison, commission agent; Hubert F. Smith, barrister. The total insurance on the building, fixtures, etc., is -cgtiOO in the northern Ollice, which has reinsured.

The tire made it clear that if an outbreak occurred any distance liom where the water could be pumped from the harbor if would be next door to impossible to stop it, if it got a good hold, by means of the present water supply. The pipe bridge at the llutt, however, was repaired this morning, and the laying of the pipes will be put in hand at once, so that the main water supply from Wainui-o-mata is expected to be available before the end of the week.