Fire up the Moanatairi Creek.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4383, 20 January 1883, Page 2

Fire up the Moanatairi Creek.

At about half-past seven o'clock last night a glare from a fire was observed in the above locality, but no notice appeared to bo taken of it, people no doubt thinking it was the fern or titreo burning. It turna out, however, that it was caused by the changing room and office of the New Whau Gr.M.Co., near the mouth of the Wb.au level, catching fire by some means. The lames quickly spread to the changing room, office, and smithy of the Alburnia Co., which were only a few feet away, and both buildings were quickly razed to the ground. There were only four men on the spot, Messrs T. liadford (manager), J. Jobe, J. Denyer, Donnelly, and liadford junr. They did what they could to stay the flames, but the only water avail* able was a little issuing from a drire. The New North Peron ©hung*

ins;room, &c, whioh were some 50 feet away, were not damaged, but another small building, near the Alburnia smithy, had a very narrow escape, one of the men being burnt while putting out the fire when it caught it. The fire is supposed to have had its origin in the * Whau smithy where there was a fire about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, but it must have spread very rapidly, as a trucker passed the buildings every quarter of an hour, and he did not notice any signs of it till it was burning too fiercely to be extinguished, with the appliances at hand.