DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1921, Page 4

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

CLOTHING FACTORY GUTTED. OLD MASONIC HALL. A destructive fire, involving the loss of a clothing factory employing about 30 hende, in upper Brougham Street, New Plymouth, owned by Mr. F. Amor and occupied by Mr. E. Bergman, occurred at midnight on Saturday. Stock insured for £lBOO and valued at a larger amount was alfio totally destroyed. The fire brigade received the call at 11.50 o’clock and were promptly on the scone, but the fire had then obtained a strong hold in the old and dry timbers of the building and it was only subdued with groat difficulty after the building had been badly gutted. No theory haa yet been advanced as to the cause of the fire. An inspection of the premises wa. made at 11 o’clock, when there was ih sign of the fire, which must have started a few minutes later, as the building was a mass of flames when the brigade arrived before midnight. The factory was at one time the Masonic Hall, having oeen recently converted to a clothing manufacturing concern by Mr. Bergman, who installed plant of considerable value and also held a large stock of materials. The building was insured in the Phoenix Office for £6OO and the stock in several offices for £lBOO.