The Wyndham-street fire in Auckland, New Zealand, was a disastrous incident that resulted in the loss of three lives and the destruction of the Shakespeare boardinghouse, run by Austrian Nicholas Lukich. The outbreak was first discovered by Mr. J. Ward, the night watchman at the Herald Office, and by Mr. J. F. Lowry, who, with three fellow linotype operators from the Herald, had just left the works. When crossing the boardinghouse, a red glare was noticed through the fanlight over the door of the ground floor entrance, and smoke was seen to be issuing from the top of the building.
Mr. McVeagh rushed to the fire alarm at the top of the street, but unfortunately, the service on this route has not yet been connected with the central fire station in Pitt-street. Meanwhile, Mr. Ward ran down towards Queen-street to give the alarm to the police, shouting “Fire, fire” as he ran, and through him the news reached the fire brigade station, the Queen-street alarms being connected. Messrs. Lowry and J. Graham immediately made across to the fire-escape attached to the building, which the former mounted with the assistance of his fellow worker.
While running up the fire escape, Mr. Lowry heard voices and the click of a window catch above—showing that their efforts to awaken the slumbering inmates had not been in vain—and on reaching the first floor window he found there two women, one of whom had a child in her arms, and was at the same time endeavouring to support the other, who had fainted. Grasping the child Mr. Lowry rapidly descended, and handed it to Mr. Graham, who had it conveyed to the publishing office of the Herald. By this time members of the police force, directed by the shouting, had arrived on the scene, and the two women, who proved to be the wife and sister of the boardinghouse-keeper, were quickly brought down and sent on to the Herald publishing office, where they and the child received every attention till Mr. Nicholas Green, who lives nearly opposite the Shakespeare boardinghouse, kindly made provision for them.
Once the fire was sufficiently under control, a search was commenced for the missing body of the Slavonian, Marko Markovich, but it was not until after nine a.m. that the remains were found. The body remains were found on a small landing. They were charred and unrecognizable. Markovich had his sleeping quarters in one of the rooms at the rear of the second floor, and it would seem that from the place where the remains were found that he had made his way down to the landing in an attempt to escape by means of the window overlooking the yard at the back of the building.
When the excitement had cooled down somewhat, the boardinghouse-keeper was able to identify the body of the man found wrapped up in the blankets as that of a Maori named Kepa, who had been staying at the house for about a week. There were no burns on the body, which was subsequently conveyed to the morgue along with that of the other victim, who was not identified till some time later in the day, the boardinghouse-keeper only knowing that he had been admitted shortly after nine o’clock on the Thursday night. In the afternoon, the second body was identified as that of Walter Speakman, a gumdigger, who only arrived in Auckland on Thursday evening by the s.s. Wellington, from Parua Bay near Whangarei. Mr. James Perry, one of the passengers, was the person to identify the body.
The origin of the fire is unknown, as none of the inmates appeared to have the least idea of when or how it started. Lukich stated that the last of those in the building had retired to bed before he went to rest, so the cause of the fire remains enigmatic.
The City Fire Brigade, under Superintendent Woolley, made all possible haste to the scene of the fire on receipt of the alarm, and arrived at the building with the delay of taking the wrong route. Upon their arrival, three leads of hose were quickly run out, and in less than half-an-hour, they had the fire completely under control, preventing any chance of its spreading to the Auckland Gas Company’s and Messrs. Swinnerton and Sons’ buildings on either side.
The Wyndham-street fire was a catastrophic event that resulted in the tragic loss of three lives. The work of rescue was heroic, and the efforts of the City Fire Brigade under Superintendent Woolley prevented the fire from spreading further, averting a much more significant disaster for Auckland. The cause of the fire remains unknown, generating an air of mystery surrounding the tragic event.
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