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The Gisborne Photo News

 
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No 174 : December 4, 1968

42

$80,000 Up In Smoke

Goods worth an estimated $80,000 were damaged or destroyed by fire which broke out in Townley's Building in the early hours of Monday, November 18. The fire appeared to have started somewhere in the back section of the store. It came within days of the end of Humphreys Furnishing Warehouse, which had just sold its stock to Christies after 48 years of continuous trading. The stock was to have been shifted over to Christies' Peel Street store in the week following the fire.

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The Townley building. The smoke-damaged section and broken windows on the outer of the structure can be seen to the left.

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Christies' staff search through the water-sodden debris for papers.

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Murray Willson of the Fire Brigade checks one of the pumps taking water from the basement after the fire.

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The sodden remains of beds, bedding and bedroom furniture on the first floor.

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Merv Jury of Christies throws some of the mess, left after the ravages of the fire, into a waiting bin.

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This view of the Peel Street entrance to the store shows the disastrous effects of the fire

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