EARLY MORNING FIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 August 1938, Page 4

EARLY MORNING FIRE

OPAKI ROAD HOUSE DESTROYED. OCCUPANTS MAKE HURRIED EXIT. The occupants of a five-roomed house in Opaki Road had to make a hurried exit in the early hours of yesterday morning when it was discovered that the building was ablaze. Together with its contents, the house, which was occupied by Mrs L. Gorringe, was completely destroyed. Mrs Gorringe, her daughter, two sons, and a nephew, were asleep when Mrs Gorringe was aroused by smoke and woke the others. As it was, the occupants had only sufficient time to leave the house before it was enveloped in flames. There was no opportunity to salvage any of the furniture, and the family were able to pick up only a few items of clothing as they made their hurried exit. The house was located, two and a half miles from Masterton, outside of the fire district. However, when the brigade received the call at 3.27 a.m. it promptly turned out, but as the water had to be pumped from a small creek the brigade’s task was hopeless from the start. Four hundred feet of hose had to be run from a water-race and it was necessary later for some of the men to dig holes to provide suction. A light breeze fanned the flames, the reflection of which could be seen as the brigade reached Lansdowne. Both the house, which is owned by Mr James McGovern, Mauriceville, and the furniture, are covered by insurance.

, HISTORIC HOMESTEAD. OKOIA HOUSE DEMOLISHED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI, August 14. Another old Wanganui district homestead, “Lornty,” Okoia,. seven . miles from Wanganui, was destroyed by fire this morning. - Built of pit-sawn timber by the late Mr .David Strachan shortly after his arrival from Scotland, in 1866, the old homestead was then the most removed farmhouse from Wanganui, and during the anxious days of the Maori wars strategic caves were constructed near the building where defenders could hold out for a lengthy period if necessary, “Lornty” was built in the old English style, a two-storey house of eight rooms.