DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT FRANKTON Dethraer's Hotel Destroyed.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2024, 27 June 1885, Page 3

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT FRANKTON Dethraer's Hotel Destroyed.

Till It.ulu.iv I Intel .it Fi.tiiktmi, ,i two stoieyd building, containing about fifteen iimiiii-, in the >>( t up.it ion i>f Mi \\ illi.im |)itlnn<*i, was bullied tn tin* ground between the liouis nf foul .mcl five nil Thuis'lav IHOI11II1& Tin' Mnit-st i-nquii> li i-, f uled to disc >vei tlir c ui-c of tin tin 1 Tin- liceiist (> !•- mi ibl<> to olb 1 ,mj ( \|>l m * tutu. On tlio night in question tin 1 only p^i-nm"- in tin* hnti;l, wen 1 Mi Detlimei, In- wife, and then font \ « m nj_c (iuldnn, .md all slept down stalls. Mi I > >t lim«*i explains that since the fatal fluat Camp's Ifntel lii-i family hsve always occupied looms in the lowei stoiej-, fiom fe.u of accident. .Mi Dethmer states that lie left no lights <n hies burning when lie went to bed, and knew nothing ot the file, until his wife wok' linn, md then tin: building was in flames. It seems, liowovoi, fiom the testimony of Tlmmas William Ciowloy, a i.ulway tin |)lo\l who lives in close, pioxiiintv to the lintel, that tlio Hie oiitpnatul in the b.n. .Mi CiowK'j states that he got "I 1 <lt <l (|uaitcr past 1 mi Thursday morning, as ho had to pi to Mouiiismllc. While in tho act of lighting his kitchen fiie he heard a eiackling noisp, and looking out of the w indow kiw t\ lines breaking out thiough the weathei boaiding of the hotel at the bar coiner. The flames weie low down— on a levil with tho floor and lie diew his wife's attention to tin: fact, lie then ran .ici oss to the hotel, but by the time, lie iriivod, the file had obt.vned a good hold, and was -.pip.ulmp lapidlv totlir other paits of the buildinf,'. The tiist peiMm he saw tta-Mi Dethinei, who had his tioiisers on, but no li.it. He iJterwaids m\v Mm Dothtnei .md the childien on the mad, a shoit dist.mce away. He a^ked l)ethmei if lio wanted to s,i\c ■mythinj,', as, at this tune, it was possible to have saved the contents of tlio kitchen .md some of the othei moms, but hi 1 leceived no icply. Mr ('aid well, the stationmastei and souk* other nei^hboiiM aimed on the ncene soon afteiwaid-, l)iit it was then too late to *,ne anything nut nf the hott I. The kitchen was the last palt of the building destio'ved. Dethinei I,'jii' it as his opinion that the file bn>ko out ill the kitchen, but Ciowle\ told him that Midi could not have been the i.ise, and he then told him what lie had seen. The hotc 1 u,,s the [.iopeit\ of Mi Thomas .lolly, and cost when elected, some six oi s(.\cn \e,w> ,i#>, about £1 100. ft was nisiiied in the Colonial Olliee fni £7(10. Mr Dethinei s stink and fiiimtuie weie iiisined in the l'nitid foi £2*io, and in the Nation. l foi £](X) Mi Dethinei was i weekh tenant \\ c have hmmiii to UclU'M 1 tlllt the (KMUMIU 1 " Will be HI «|l> the snb)e( t of .in iui|lie-t