FIRE AT AVENUE ROAD.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 May 1918, Page 6

FIRE AT AVENUE ROAD.

EIGHT-ROOMED HOUSE DESTROYED. INMATES LOSE ALL EFFECTS. An eight-roomed house situated oa the Aveuue road, and the furniture and personal property which it contained, were completely destroyed by fire between seven and eight o'clock on Sunday morning. The house, part of which is reported to have been built prior to | the Maori War, was owned by the executors of the estate of the late William Bayly, and waa occupied by Mr, D. B. Stone- Early in the morning, Mr. Stone, I who was at the time alone in the house, discovered that a kapoc mattress,, which I was drying in front of the fire, had caught and Iburnt a hole through th» i floor, under which was a cellar. With the assistance of Mr. M. H. King and his son, who live On the opposite side of bhe road, the flames were checked and an examination revealed no signs of further fire. About an hour and a-haU later, when Mr. Stone was a short distance from the house, flames seen to hurst out. The fire brigade was called on the telephone, but by the tim» it arrived the building was past saving The occupant reports that even by the time he again reached the door it was impossible to enter the kitchen, the whole interior being a mass o? fli» Nothing was saved but the clothes which the occupants were wearing. Mrs. Stone, the children, a housekeeper, and a nursegirl were all away from home. The insurance on the building was £175 in the Phoenix Company, and the furniture was insured for £250 with the Vwtional OfficeIt is possible that Mr. Stone will toe a heavv loser, apart from the destrueHon of furniture and personal effects. A considerable pnm of money, mostly in notes, including .£l2 10s in the children's money-boxes, was deposited in th* cellar beneath the house, and it was not known whether this had escaped the flames.