DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT HAMILTON EAST.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1252, 8 July 1880, Page 2

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT HAMILTON EAST.

Between 10 and 11 o'clock last night a fire broke out on the premises occupied by Messrs Swarm and Cochrane, wheelwrights and blacksmiths, Hamilton East, by which the buildings were totally destroyed; and it was only through the strenuous exertions of some of the neighbors that the house adjoining (the property of Mr White) escaped a similar fate. It is only recently that the workshops have been re-erected, and it would appear as though a fatality hovered about the place, as the wheelwright's shop and a four-roomed cottage burnt to the ground on the 21st January last. The fire then originated in the blacksmith's shop, and Mr Swarm was a heavy loser by the casualty.' Everything contained in the building destroyed last night was brand-new. We understand that the building was insured in the New Zealand Insurance Company, but for what amount has not transpired. There was a good organised body of men on the ground, and through their able and Well-directed services the adjoining property was saved, a chain of men being laid across the street to the nearest water; and it is a great pity that there was no hose at hand to altich to the river, as without it there was no hope of saving Swarm and Ooohrane's premises. It is high time that some sorfcof provision was made by theßorough, as had there been such the building might have been saved, Mr J. M. Gelling was the first on the west side to give the alarm, and immediately informed Mr Gwynne, who sounded his gong, which brought the much # needed assistance to the spot. It is to be hoped that some good authority will represent the necessity of the Auckland Insurance Companies being alive to their own interests, as there are many naks in this rapidly-growing township incumbent upon them, and » Bmall outI *y at once might save them hundreds, if not thousands of pounds in the future,