HOTEL DESTROYED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1938, Page 8

HOTEL DESTROYED

EARLY MORNING BLAZE AT SPRING CREEK OCCUPANTS MAKE HURRIED ESCAPE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, This Day. The Ferry Hotel at Spring Creek, a two-storey wooden building containing twelve rooms, was totally destroyed by fire at 3.30 o’clock this morning. The hotel, which had stood on a bank of the Wairau River for the past 50 years, was owned by Mrs Jane Basting, of Auckland and was occupied by Mr Norman L. Emms. The insurance on the building was £B5O, with £lOO on contents and stock. Mr Emms, his wife, daughter and a friend were the only people on the premises. Mrs Emms was awakened by the glare from the flames, which already were bursting through the windows downstairs. Apart from some clothing they hurriedly donned they had no time to save anything except a handful of notes which the licensee grabbed from the safe, leaving about £3O in silver. ,

Evidently the outbreak of fire originated in the kitchen or the dining room and, with no means of extinguishing it available, the fire made a clean sweep of the entire premises.