The long, hot summer days cause the fire risk to soar and it only takes one spark to cause disaster. At 4.30pm on December 13, 1955, a fire which became Wellsford’s Big Blaze, started in the basement of McPhail’s Stationery Shop, probably by sparks blown from an incinerator burning shop rubbish. By 6pm, McPhail’s, the Bank of New South Wales, Witheford’s Electrical and Appliances, Partington’s hairdressers and tobacconists, and Smarts Drapery and Menswear were burned to the ground. McPhail’s and Partington’s living quarters were also destroyed. McPhail’s saved a handful of personal belongings but lost all their Christmas stock.
Furniture and stock were also saved from Smart’s, Witheford’s and Partington’s. The Bank of New South Wales’ three safes were red-hot and had to be left to cool. When they were finally opened, their contents were in remarkably good condition, though some items were a bit charred around the edges.
Wellsford’s Volunteer Fire Brigade had almost gone into recess during WWII but only three months before the fire, an enthusiastic meeting saw it re-established. These were the men who manned the brigade’s engine (probably one of the oldest in New Zealand) and formed bucket brigades to pass water from the rack of fire buckets outside the Post Office. Emergency calls were sent to Maungaturoto and Waipu brigades, and they raced to help but with no high pressure water supply, they couldn’t reach the seat of the fire so concentrated on confining the blaze to one block. They succeeded, and Highway Tearooms escaped with severe scorching and water damage.
The fire was so hot that the concrete footpath became unbearable and the surface bitumen on SH1 melted. Across the highway, plate-glass windows in Dalgety’s cracked and the store’s stock of highly inflammable paint was quickly removed. Power lines melted. Apparently, some said that the high school dance that night was quite romantic by candlelight.
The town looked dismal the next day with jumbled heaps of roofing iron, bricks and concrete. One lone chimney stood among the debris. The only consolation was that no-one was injured. It wasn’t long before new and better buildings replaced the losses and two major decisions were taken as a result of the fire. A modern water supply was essential and an efficient, properly equipped Fire Brigade would be provided. As Harold Mabbett wrote in Wellsford, Tidal Creek to Gum Ridge ‘so some good can come out of misfortune’.
Sources: Wellsford Fire – History of Wellsford Volunteer Fire Brigade, by Forbes Greenfield; Wellsford, Tidal Creek to Gum Ridge, by Harold Mabbett.
History - Albertland Museum
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