Parliament's library escapes great fire

Fire was the scourge of colonial towns and cities. Old, tinder-dry wooden buildings and books were a highly combustible combination, and many private and public library collections went up in flames.

A great library disaster was narrowly averted in 1907, when fire swept through Parliament Buildings in Wellington. At 2 a.m. on 11 December Parliament’s nightwatchman made his regular check of the buildings before returning to his office for a cup of cocoa. He thought he heard rain on the roof, but when he went to check found that a substantial blaze had broken out. He sounded the alarm, threw open the gate for the fire brigade and tackled the fire with a hose, which soon burned right through.

The fire was probably started by a short in the electric wiring in the ceiling of the interpreters’ room. It spread rapidly through the old wooden parts of the buildings and then into the masonry additions of the 1880s. By 5 a.m., Bellamy’s restaurant had been destroyed and firemen were battling desperately to save the library. An eyewitness described the scene:

It was apparent that the main building could not be saved, and everyone then concentrated on salvaging what they could, and the lawn in front of the building began to look like a fair. There were books, papers, portraits, chairs and desks, hurriedly snatched and brought to safety…. At the northern end of the block was the new General Assembly Library, a brick structure, protected by iron doors and shutters. When it seemed that this too might become involved, frantic efforts were made to remove the books and records, and through a private property in Hill Street, an endless stream of people began carrying them to safety, but the library was saved.

Staff and volunteers moved more than 15,000 volumes from the building’s ground floor as a precaution against the flames breaking through. The morning light revealed the scale of the devastation to the crowds and parliamentarians who had come to watch: the old wooden buildings were completely destroyed, but New Zealand’s de facto national library – with its 80,000 volumes and many other treasures – had been saved by its brick walls and metal fire door. 

Image: Parliament Buildings on fire in 1907