A fiery tragedy

The old saying goes fire is a good servant but a bad master.
How the fire started in Louisa Johnson’s house on Murphy St in Wellington in 1877 is unclear. What we do know is that Louisa and her five children died in a blaze that destroyed several buildings in a tragedy in the early colony town.
About 3am fire alarm bells began ringing. The Princess Hotel was completely engulfed in fire as was the house behind. The fire spread quickly and Louisa’s house was quickly in flames.
It’s hard to know now if they could have been saved. They were likely asleep and hopefully overcome long before the fire reached them.
What we do know is that there was no chance to help them. There was no water.
Fire fighters and police were quickly on hand and gallantly put a ladder against an outer wall to try and gain entry to the Johnson home but the fire and smoke was so intense that one of the fire fighters fell from the ladder injuring himself.
It was 45 minutes before water could be brought to the site.
The bodies of the five were removed from the site - the body of the youngest baby in Louisa’s arms. They were Louisa, Henry, Frederick, Frank, Amy and Jessie.
The Captain of the Central Fire station Lewis Moss told the inquest they had immediately connected to a fire hydrant, but once turned on there was no water.
They went to another hydrant on another road but there was no water there either.
Even when they managed to get water, it was a trickle.
An engineer found that copper gauze, used in the pipes to stain the water, had slipped and was partially blocking the pipe.
A coal merchant who lived nearby Edwin Jeffreys, had tried to get into the back door of the house but had been driven back by the flames.
Only a couple of weeks before Thorndon residents had been complaining that they were getting very little water in the evening hours. Later it was discovered water was being turned off at night as too much was being used by local businesses.
Louisa Bolton was born in New Zealand on January 4, 1842 to Frederick and Elizabeth who had come to New Zealand from England.
She had married William Henry Johnson in Wellington in 1864 at St Andrews Church.
William had died the year before the fire leaving Louisa with the children.
Her brother George had told the inquest that Louisa was despondent and often kept a lamp burning at night - a possible cause of the fire.
William had been buried in Bolton St Cemetery - and nearly a year later, Louisa and all their children were buried with him.
Picture by Jen Theodore.​