BIG FIRE AT HASTINGS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9028, 15 January 1908, Page 5

BIG FIRE AT HASTINGS.

ELEVEN BUILDINGS BURNED. RESTAURANT-KEEPER ARRESTED ON CHARGE OF ARSON. BY TBIiEORAriI—PRESS ASSOCIATION*. NAPIER, January 14. Hastings was the scene of another big conflagration early this morning. Just before midnight the firebell rang out an alarm, and it was found that a sn ail wooden building in Station Street, kept as a restaurant by Mr M. Johnson, and known as the "Silver Grid," was in flames. The fire spread with such rapidity that, even before the arrival of the briagde, a minute or two after midnight, the buildings on either side of the restaurant had caught. Owing to some slight mishap, it was about ton minutes before the water could be got on, and during that time the fire had spread to Hartshorn and Wellwood's on one sido, and T. M. Robertson's fruiterer's shop on the other side. A further stoppage of the water-pres-sure tor five minutes enabled the fire to gain a further hold, but a few minutes afterwards the brigade had the fire well in hand, though it continued to burn for nearly two hours after. Most of the bulidings were old, which probably accounted for the rapidity with which the flames spread. The businesses burnt out were Hartshorn and Wellwood, land agents; Geo. Ebbett, solicitor; Johnston's restaurant; Edgar Lewis, jeweller; H. Christian, bicycle shop; S. Scaeffer, tobacconist; F. Cassin, land agent; F. Fitzpatrick, billiard saloon; Wooster, baker; Fraser and Fagan, tea importers; Reynolds and Co., bicycle agents; and M. Robertson, fruiterer. Hyde and Co.'s billiard saloon, at the rear of Robertson's, and opening out into the Grand Hotel right-of-way, was badly damaged by fire and water, but the two billiard tables seem to have escaped injury. _ In connection with the fire, Martin Johnston, proprietor of the "Silver Grid," was arrested this evening on a charge of alleged arson.