FIRE IN GLADSTONE ROAD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3303, 23 August 1911, Page 5

FIRE IN GLADSTONE ROAD.

COTTAGE TOTALLY. DESTROYED.

BUILDING VACANT AT THE TIME.

The fire brigade were called out short.l •r, r 9 ° <fi oc k last evening to a fire wihieli had broken- out in an unoccupied Aour-roomedi dwelling situated in Upper Gladstone Road just beyond the intersection of Cook Street. Tlie glare caused by the fir© was plainly visible from all points, and it was at first thought that the conflagration was of more serious nature than was actually the case The building was a very old one, and it burnt like tinder, and when the Brigade arrived, some ten minutes after the alarm was given, the walls had fallen m. AH possibility of saving theshell had vanished, and all that remained was a heap of blazing and broken timber. Tlie brigade, however,, soon had leads of hose playing on to the remains of the structure, and the highleaping flames were soon suppressed. The cottage was the property of Mr Boyd, proprietor of the City Laundry, and was insured in the Yorkshire Office for £l5O. Tlie last tenant moved out on Saturday, and a new one was to have taken possession in a day or two. Mr James Brown, of Wlia-taupoko, to .whom the letting of the cottage had been entrusted, told' a ‘/Gisborne 1 imes’ ’ reporter when seen after the fire that he was in the house early yesterday afternoon, and there were then no signs of fire. In order to allow a prospective tenant means of entrance be left one of the windows unfastened, and it is possible that a spark from a neighboring chimney may have blown in and caused the outbreak.