FIRE ON LAMBTON QUAY, WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 3 January 1888, Page 2

FIRE ON LAMBTON QUAY, WELLINGTON.

At about half-past one on Sunday morning, the firebells of Wellington rang out an alarm which proved upon investigation tobe a false one, prompted, perhaps, by the exuberant spirits of ceielmitors of the New Year. Later on, however, the bells were again tolled, this time for. a fire in real earnest, for it was found that the buildings adjacent to Oil's City Bullet Hotel on .Liinbton' Quay, one of the i/con.uuaueiea public-houses in Wellington, and an ornament, in point of. architecture, to the quay, were on lire, and that the hotel, was in imminent - danger. Wc regret ~su~'cay uimv iho- : hotel and the two shops to the south of it were compWßsly destroyed, with 1 their contents, by the flames. The lire origina'ly broke out in Mr John Bullock's stationery aiul '-fancyl goods shop next to the City. Buffet Hotel, and appears to have been observed at abou j the same time bv the the night porteiuit the hotel and -two young men, Messrs McCleary and K, Prince, who were, passing along the quay, it being then a miriute or two past i o'clock. The night porter, seeing and hearing unmistakeiihle signs ot.firo.at ths rear of Bullock's shop, (separated from the City Buffet by a very narrow passage) at once gavo the alarm to tho inmates of the hotel, which is very largely patronised by country visitors, ami had at the time about CO boarders. It would appear, however, that Prince and McCleary 6aw the fire if anything, a trifle sooner than the night porter did, Passing Bullock's shop, they saw sinoke issuing from the front window, and listening at the door they heard the crackling of tho flames at the far end of the shop, which stretches to the back of the building. •Adjacent to Bullocks, and in tho same building, MrW. Carpenter carried on business as a fruiterer, using the upper floorasaresidence;anilßiip,ce,with commendable promptitude, climbed up the verandah posts and, breaking the window gave tho alarm to Mr Carpenter and his family. The dames, spreading very quickly, had by this tiiuo reached the other shop, and the Carpenters had to make a hurried exit,' Mr and Mrs Carpenter escaped by the verandah', and the rest of the family by the shop door. Meanwhile: the policeman on duty, Constable McGill, lrad arrived on the scene, and was assisting to save the inmatesof the threatened buildings, and the alarm was given by the bell at the Central Ji'ire Brigade Station. All l he buildings, being emptied of people effor.ts.were made to save the stock; but with vary little result, The Haines'Rad taken such a hold of "Bullock's that it was absolutely impossible , to get anything out of the shop, and so the whole Stock had to be left to burn. From' a piano and a small (piuntitv of fruit wpro rescued, but; us is only natural under the circumstances tlie latter was worth little or nothing, As to the City Buffet, it war impossible, looking at the style of the building, to save more than the furniture in tho huge dining-rooM, for upstairs of considerable being got Outside, ''Moreover, ~ fire itself precluded the possibility of doing much in the way of salvage, for the flames, fanned by alight but puffy nor' west wind, rapidly spread to the l(otelj and when the Fire Brigade arrived in a very short timo after the alarm had been given, the hotel was actually on ! fire, and things looked very ominous for tho block right along the Quay. 1 Had the wind freshened, or even kept up, a most disastrous fire would have 1 had to be chronicled, but fortunately ! it dropped at {( quarter pqst four. The mischief, however, was done, as far as ! the City Buffet was concerned, imvit ' was evident that nothing could save - 1 that building on the north, or Carpen : * tor's shop on the f>QUl)i; while tho ' warehouse o?cu|)ied by Mast's > T e|sou 1

nn^inn| TOlb' - to the square inch; 1 ranches . .were worked - three from the Quay, one from »the window of Messrs R. Gardner & . Co.; whose iron-' mongery- warehouse- is next to the City Buffet, and one from the roof of the warehouse.'' The sixth was directed from, the Terrace; with splendid effect, ( byßranchuian Jfarsonage Foralorfg time, the struggle between lire and - water was maintained,-and the result seemed very-doubtful till abqutteu minutes to 5, when the skill and pluck of •> the Brigade asserted its superiority, and the fire was practically subdued, In the meantime the flames- had' raged over the hotel, aiid almost swallowed up the interior leaving but a. skeleton of the walls standing. The same, fate had fallen upon Ballocks awl Carpenter's, but the fire had been less fierce here than on the other side, and had been confined to the two shops. Once or twice Nelson and Moate's Warehouse caught, and the weather-boards were slightlv charred,' but no, damage of any consequence was done in that way; Messrs Gardner's warehouse, to the north of the hotel,' had had one or two narrow escapes, in consequence of the window sashes catching fire, but the firemen were übiquitous, and any fresh outbreak was promptly suppressed while in iis incipieney, Between water and smoke, however, some damage was done to Gardner's stock, which is estimated roughlyatabout£2oo. Going through tlio building afterward' Mr Gardner found, that in one of the rooms the scrim had "caught fire and been burned for some feet along tho walls, It had dropped down, and the firo apparently had gone out of its own accord, This was a little less than a miraculous' escape, for, had the first fire once got a hold, to subdue it would havo been difficult if not impossible. However, as it was the galvanised iron walls, added to tlie splendid efforts of the firemen, sayed Messrs Gardner's building. A number of people crowded round the front door aud wished to remove the stock, but Mr Gardner wisely refused to allow it to be touched so long as his prospects of immunity from danger continued good. At.five o'clock the firo only burned fitfully here and there in the remains of the hotel, and was subdued in all other parts. A little later on. there ..was jinthinshv/ww- 11 - I ' llp ' man Taylor was one.of the,several meiubers of the brigade who narrowly escaped injury from pieces of tho building falling oil to the footpath where they were working, A piece of the' parapet fell from the top of the hotel, jiand Mr Taylor, stumbling as lie: was getting away from it, cut the front off' his helmet, Several other firemen had urn-row "escapes in the same way. .

Tho boarders at the City Buffet Hotel (about sixty in number) lost pretty nearly everything but the clothes they slipped on before running out into the street. All but one or two, however lost their bootß. - Mr. Orr himself had to slide downY rope, and one or two female boarders had to leave the hotel without waiting to dress. • , As to the origin of the lire nothing is yet known. One theory, which does not seem to have much practical strength, is that it was caused by the sparks of a rocket, A number of rockets were set oil after midnight, and tho sparks of some undoubtedly fell in the direction of Lambton Quay, but the fact that tho fire when discovered was' inside Bullock's shop, where, therefore, it must have origin-, ated, disMiirages belief in this theory, Apart I'rom that there is no suggestion as to how the lire was caused. Mr Bullock states lliat lie left the premises with his wife and a friend at half-past ten on Saturday night, and everything was then safe.— N.Z. Times.