Historic HB: Fire brigade saves town

The Dennis fire engine used during the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake in Hastings. Photo / Hastings District Council

Hastings' first fire brigade was formed in 1886 and was operated by the town board.

A manual fire engine and was bought in Wellington and six metres of hose and coupling from the Napier Fire Board.

Architects Rush and James in 1911 designed a purpose-built fire station on the corner of Market St and Lyndon Rds. The previous fire station was an old wooden one about where the Opera Kitchen is now.

The brick and concrete fire station was completed in 1912. It had an engine room of 12m by 11m, a watchroom, boardroom, and two stalls. Accommodation was provided for a married couple and three men, who were also provided with a large recreation room of 11m by 8m.

Government inspector of fires, Captain T T Hugo, said the building "showed careful and practical thought on the part of the architects who had designed the best arranged station" of all the various fire boards of the Dominion.

However, the building, only 19 years only at the time of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake, collapsed in the disaster. Station keeper Albert Richmond (1889–1979) and his wife, Grace (1894–1979) were lucky to escape. Albert carried out Grace, who was unconscious and severely injured – but would survive.

It is often assumed Hastings had no fires immediately after the earthquake – but it did.

Volunteer firemen saw fires break out in chemist shops, and in the wrecked Roachs' Department store and scrambled to the station but found the fire engine trapped with rubble.

Hoses and other equipment were removed from the station and loaded onto brigade member Bill Draper's lorry. Another lorry was commandeered and used to pull blocks of masonry to get out the Dennis fire engine.

Hastings would have burned to the ground if it wasn't for the work of the fire brigade, some of whom worked for 36 hours without a break.

The role of the fire brigade in Hastings and Napier (Napier had water only for a short time, before being completely cut off) was praised by T T Hugo, then just retired. "There had been columns of eulogy in the Press concerning the work of the Navy, nurses, medical men and others, but hardly a word, if any, of the splendid work of the fire brigades."

As a witness of the disaster, he did not believe that any body of men had done finer work than the fire brigades. He had seen some of the men drop from sheer exhaustion.

As the Hasting fire station was wrecked, the fire engine was kept in a garage around the corner.

Michael Fowler

It was decided not to rebuild in the old location, as the future growth of Hastings would require a larger fire station.

Instead, the brigade accepted the offer to buy .6ha from E F Fraser bordering Eastbourne, Lyndon and Hastings Sts. Progress was slow because of the Great Depression and a loan to rebuild was hard to come by. The work done by the fire brigade mattered little when it came to economics – the Bank of New Zealand declined to advance an overdraft to buy the £1500 (2020: $170,000) section.

Fortunately, Mrs Fraser was willing to accept a small deposit of £100 and quarterly instalments of £75.

Plans for the building were drawn up in 1932 by Hastings architects Davies and Phillips.

Not only was there a new fire station, but a superintendent's residence and two firemen's cottages.

Thirteen tenders were received, and the successful one was from H W Abbott – a well-known Hastings builder of the day. As the property was part of the old bed of the Makirikiri creek, there was plenty of sand and shingle, which cut construction costs by several hundred pounds.

Napier's Daily Telegraph described it as "one of Hastings' proudest post-earthquake possessions". Built in what is now called Art Deco-style, it had three bays to accommodate six appliances, five single bedrooms and a large social hall and kitchen.

To fund the building, £6000 was secured from the AMP Society and £2700 from the Government.

George Roach, who was mainly responsible for the new building, opened it on July 18, 1933, and declared it "second to none in New Zealand".

The fire station was used until the early 1980s when the brigade was transferred to a new building in Maraekakaho Rd.

Since then the property has been developed into offices, but the developer has kept the facade intact as a striking example of an Art Deco building.

• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is contract history researcher and book writer.