FIRE IN NAPIER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 321, 7 June 1911, Page 5

FIRE IN NAPIER

.— ♦ THEATRE DESTROYED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Napier, .Tuesday. A lire broke out shortly after nine o'clock in the Gaiety Theatre, a hugs iron structure used for the combined purposes of Thompson and Payne's pictures and Hawkins and Rome's motor garnge. Before the brigade arrived the flames, assisted by the inflammable contents, had taken entire charge of the building, and efforts had to be concentrated to confining the tire within the limits of the theatre. The whole structure wis soon a roaring nirnace, and but for the fact that it was isolated the fir? must have spread. As it was, shops ( «id dwelling* on the south side of Dick'ensjstreet were badly scorched and windows broken-. So rapidly did the flames spread that the caretaker of the building, Munro and his wife, had a narrow escape, the former receiving severe burns. Within half an hour of the alarm being given the theatre was a, mass of smoking' debris. The insurances on the building were £ISOO in the Sun office ( £750 reinsured in the New Zealand office), £SOO in the Northern, and £250 in the Royal. Thompson and Payne estimate their loss at over £2OOO, the film <k>atroyed being valued at £BOO. Hawkins and Rowe's insurance on their plant, etc., was £4OO in the Atlas office, and on tire cars £9OO in the same office. Thompson and Payne were insured for £450 in the State oflice. The insurance.'* total C4OOO. There. wa< an absolute loss, only one ear having been saved.