Wednesday 12 December 2018

The old Horeke Store Fire


Interesting buildings these ones. The one of the left is still being used as a house but the one on the right was the old Horeke Post Office and General Store. Apparently in 1931 embers from smoke coming out of the house's chimney scattered onto the floor and the flames spread across to the store.

The news story below illustrates what happened:
BIG BLAZE - Northern Advocate 1931
HOREKE STORE AND P.O. TWO DWELLINGS SAVED. START IN TIN CHIMNEY. A disastrous fire devastated the business block of Horeke on Saturday last, about 12.30 p.m. Two dwellings, the store and post office stand - together on a platform supported by piles over the river. It is believed that the outbreak was caused by the wind blowing down the tin chimney of the smaller house and scattering embers on the floor. It was lunch time, and although the outbreak was quickly detected, efforts to prevent the spread of flames to the store were unsuccessful. Fortunately the tide was in, and a bucket brigade worked like trojans to save, 'the buildings. The outbreak in the smaller house was got in" hand, but not before over £IOO damage had been done. The store was completely gutted. Mr (H. Rose, who owned the; whole block of buildings, was carrying stock valued at £2500, which he had insured for ■£17.30.
The post office also is a complete, ruin, but most of the records were saved. ‘
Three boats were moored to the piles and forgotten in the excitement. Two of these, a pleasure launch and a goods carrier, wore'burnt and sunk. The homestead was separated from the store by two’ water tanks. ’ logs were chopped in them by the Madrid and the deluging outflow to save the residence. Mr Rose was" returning from a visit to Auckland, and had just arrived to spend a 'few minutes with Mr and Mrs Jim Sloane, Mata, when he heard of the calamity which had befallen him. Rebuilding has commenced already. Mr G,' Kimber, of Whangarei, who was at Horeke, helped in ’the firefighting operations. He was burned about the forehead and arms.

8 comments:

William Kendall said...

I'm surprised the building is still standing.

local alien said...

That reminds of a fire in main Street te puke in the 60s. The fire spread from one wooden building to the other. We could hear paint cans exploding from the hardware store. A lot of it was saved by the volunteer fire brigade and built again very quickly.
Lovely story and bit of history

Billy Blue Eyes said...

Fire is always a problem with wooden buildings and no doubt the store had a lot of inflamables in it

Graham Edwards said...

I love fascinating snippets of history like that.

Sharon said...

What an interesting story. I really enjoyed the way the story was written in a sort of old fashioned and small town kind of way.

Bill said...

What an interesting story. It's amazing that the building is still standing all these years later.

Unknown said...

Actually there was another fire in the Horeke Store in 1981, in which the Store at the time burnt down, and the garage/store room next door was left. The photo in this blog shows the buildings as they were after the 1981 fire, not the original fire in 1931. Before the 1981 fire there was a building between the one in the photo and the wharf. I know because I used to stand on the verandah of the old store waiting for the school bus, in the 1960s.

Amy said...

Actually the photo is one I took about 2 years ago so it's clearly recent nothing to do with 1931 or 1981 but thanks for your information.

Westport News

  This has been one of the early buildings in Westport from the 1870s that is still being used for the local newspaper, so much old Victoria...