The City Chambers, situated at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, was destroyed by fire in the early part of the evening of June 21st, 1906. All the storeys except the first were destroyed. The damage to the building amounted to considerably over £10,000, and the loss on stock was also considerable, but difficult to ascertain, as the Chambers were rented as offices and occupied by many people.
Another serious fire, causing damage estimated at £100,000, destroyed the four-storeyed building in Queen Street, known as the Strand Arcade, on August 16th, 1909. So intense were the flames that in two hours the building, which had only been erected eight years, was reduced to a heap of ruins. It was due to the energies of the Fire Brigades that the hotels on either side of the Arcade were not involved in the conflagration.
One of the biggest fires ever experienced in Auckland broke out a few minutes before eleven o’clock on November 16th, 1911, in the premises of Messrs. Macky, Logan, Caldwell and Co., Elliott Street. The outbreak was first observed at the Darby Street end of the building, but in a very short time the whole front, from Darby Street to Victoria Street, was in flames. As a spectacle, it was one of the grandest fires seen in the city. It burned so fiercely that fears were entertained that the whole block, which is bounded by Queen Street, would be involved. A right-of-way in Darby Street, combined with the efforts of the firemen, however, stayed the course of the fire, and in less than three hours the outbreak was under control, but not before damage estimated at £150,000 had been caused.
On 29th March, 1913, Endean’s Buildings, at the corner of Queen and Quay Streets, were destroyed by fire. The damage was estimated at £35,000.
A fire which took place on October 23rd, 1915, at the stables of Messrs. J. J. Craig Ltd., Parnell, totally destroyed the building, and caused the death of more than two hundred horses. So speedily did the fire spread that only two animals escaped alive.
The fire on February 6th, 1917, which occurred in Gleeson’s Buildings, High Street, was peculiar in respect of the amount of damage to goods in relation to the damage which the building sustained. Cinematograph films, stated to be worth £28,000, belonging to the Amalgamated Film Exchange of Australia (whose representatives occupied floors in this building), were destroyed. The damage to the building did not exceed £1000.
Two outbreaks of fire took place at Messrs. Bycroft Ltd., Shortland Street within a month of one another. The first occurred on February 6th, 1919, gutting the part of the building fronting Shortland Street, and causing damage estimated at £15,000. The second fire broke out on March 8th in the rear portion of the building, destroying it and causing injury to the machinery. The damage on this occasion was about £12,000.
Another fire, which had fatal results, was the Thames Hotel blaze of February 19th, 1919. Two storeys were gutted, and one of the guests was burned to death. Others received injuries while escaping from the burning building.
Albert Park, formerly the site of Albert Barracks
J. H. Kinnear, Photo.