ANOTHER FIRE IN WESTPORT

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 593, 14 December 1869, Page 2

ANOTHER FIRE IN WESTPORT

THREE HOUSES BURNT. The community had not recovered from the alarm and confusion caused by the great fire of Saturday week when a similar but fortunately less serious disaster occurred. By a singular coincidence a fire broke out on Saturday evening again —on the same block on which the first fire occurred, and nearly at the same hour. Towards ten o'clock people were reminding each other of the occurrence of the previous Saturday evening, and speculating as to whether this Saturday was to pass without any incident, when the alarm of fire was again raised, and, sure enough, a fire there was. Another coincidence was that it broke out almost at the point at which the first fire had ceased, and it has demolished the buildings which on that occasion were spared. This was in Freeman street. On the north side of that street there stood three houses, occupying ground between the scene of the first fire and a right-of-way. By their signboards they figured as hotels, but were not really so ; at least no t all of them. There was first, and next to Gladstone street, the Old House at Home, occupied by Mr Thomas Bush and his family. Next door wa3 what was called the Ship Inn, but what was occupied by two women, Conroy and Colburn, " without a license." The third was a larger building than either—once known as the Q.C.E. Hotel, but lately as the Napoleon Third Hotel. It had only been taken possession of a few days before by Mr Cato, whose house—the Grolden Age was one of the hotels burnt in the fire of December 4th, and who has thus been twice burnt out within a week.

The fire originated in the centre house of the three—the Ship Inn. The flames had apparently a good hold of the building before they were discovered, and little or nothing was saved from the house. Probably there was not much to save. There was some anxiety about the Bafety of the inmates, as it was rumored that some persons in an indifferent state of sobriety had been in and out of the house during the day, but it proves that there was no one in the house at the time the fire occurred, and the fears which existed as to the loss of life have been allayed. For a moment there was a similar fear with regard fco Mr Bush's house. Mra Bush had gone out, leaving only a child asleep in the house, and when the alarm was raised, there was also raised the cry " There's a child there j save the child." Fortunately the child was saved, although the building was at the time on fire and full of smoke. Frederick Walker and Henri Pain pushed their way in through the thick smoke, found the child, and brought it out. The tenant of the Q.C.E.— Mrs Cato, formerly Mrs Myers—was in the act of fitting up her new home when she was forced to flee from it, saving most of the few articles on the premises. Among these was a pocketbook, containing two five-pound notes, besides other papers of value, which happened, fortunately, to be picked up at the last moment by one of the volunteer assistants. Within a few minutes all the three buildings were together in a blaze, and in half-an-hour they were a mass of burning embers.

The buildings most in danger through proximity to the fire were Sir Kirkwood's store, now in the occupation of Mr Falla, and the store occupied by Mr Organ. Both contained a quantity of beer in cask, and other goods, and Mr Falla had only completed the work of " fixing " the goods saved from the former fire when it once more became necessary, in his store and in one next to it, to turn everything out upon the street. The store itself had also a very narrow escape. The walls smoked as if they really were on fire, and it was only by the crowd opportunely diverting their attention from other points of danger and bestowing upon them as much water as could be procured that the building was protected until any danger of ignition was past. Next in danger were the Ballarat and Bendigo Hotel, the Casino, Smyrk's London Tavern, and contiguous buildings. The danger was not extreme, but, for the safety of the property itself and of the block in which they stand, precautions were taken by covering the fronts with blankets and drenching them well with water. Behind the buildings which were burnt there was a strong array of fences, which were at once torn down, otherwise the fire would have communicated with the school-house and other buildings in Molesworth street, including the Maori camp, which was very speedily vacated by its inmates, along with all their " household gods." Two of the buildings destroyed—the Q. C. E. Hotel and the Ship Hotel —belonged to Mr J. A. M. Turner,

who had other property in somewhat imminent danger. The two buildings may be valued as worth from £3OO to £4OO. The other building, we believe, belonged to Mr Bush. The origin of the fire is more a mystery than was that of the former fire, but, as in the other case, a kerosene lamp seems to have had something to do with it. In the Ship Inn there was, on the one side, a sitting-room with two bedrooms behind, and on the other side a bar and a large back room. There was a bracket lamp on the wall in the front room, and a pendant lamp in the room at the back of the bar. Both lamps, it is said, had been lit, and one supposition is that the pendant lamp, which was suspended from the roof by a piece of twine or rope had set fire "to the latter ; that the lamp thus fell; and that the floor was thereby ignited. Mrs Cato, it is said, heard something fall in the house, and about a quarter of an hour afterwards the reflection of the fire was seen on the front of Mrs Mills's Hotel on the opposite side of the street. But this is inconsistent with other circumstances, one of which is that a person was in the house only a few minutes before the fire occurred, and another is that those who first entered the premises thought the fire emanated from one of the bed-rooms. The absence of inmates was due to the fact that one of the girls went out to seek the other when their visitor called. He went out also, and in a few minutes heard the cry of " Fire," when he ran back and saved some clothes. But, whatever may have been the circumstances, they will, no doubt, be fully investigated to-day, when an inquest takes place before the Coroner, at three o'clock.

The fact of their being burnt out twice within a week naturally excited sympathy for Mr and Mrs Cato, and within an hour after the fire, by some gentlemen actively exerting themselves, there was collected a sum sufficiently handsome to be useful, and, we have no doubt, appreciated. We may add that, for another sufferer by the fire, who was an absentee and' lost everything, Mr William Graham, of Giles Terrace, has industriously sought friendly assistance, chiefly on the Terraces, and has been rewarded for his labor by finding a large amount of liberality.