DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT CHRISTCHURCH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9049, 7 February 1908, Page 5

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT CHRISTCHURCH.

SEVERAL BUILDINGS DESTROYED. ItY TF.LKGF.ATJI—niF.HS ASSOCIATION. CHRISTCHURCH, February 6. Probably the largest; and most destructive fire that has yet occurred in Christchurch broke out late to-night in one end of Strange and Co. 's large block of buildings, situated at the corner of High and Lichfield Streets, in the busiest part of the city. The fire started in a large warehouse in Lichfield Street filled with carpets and linoleum and other heavy furnishing material, and in the space of a few minutes the whole building was a mass of flames, and nothing could be done to save it. Meanwhile the fire had > spread through to the building at the back fronting on to High Street, and in turn to Ashby Bergh and Co.'s iron mongery establishment. The White Hart Hotel and other buildings in the vicinity were quickly ablaze, and were rapidly destroyed, with their contents. _ i Malcolm and Co.'s warehouse in Lichfield Street, adjoining Strange and Co.'s linoleum department, also caught alight, and the fire spread right through thj building. A fire proof wall saved Strange and Co.'s main building, but up to midnight the fire was etill burning fiercely, and many other buildings in the vicinity were threatened.