It must be one of the few times, if not the only time, that New Zealand police have arrested a firefighter while he was on duty, fighting a major outbreak. The sequence of events took place in Albert...
Auckland’s Grand Hotel was destroyed by fire in May 1901 with the loss of five lives. It was the worst in a series of major blazes that plagued Auckland at the time and its consequences forced the...
Controversial, troubled and un-named, (except being called a White Elephant) yet it served Auckland’s waterfront as a fire boat for 30 years… and then went on to Napier to, of all things, help...
A Strange String of Arsons – Auckland, 1870s A series of suspicious, major fires in Auckland in 1871 frightened the locals, tested the fire brigade and galvanised police to find the...
Accounts of Auckland’s fire protection before 1857, when a volunteer brigade was established, usually amount to a couple of lines saying that “organised” fire-fighting in those early days was left...