THE FIRE
The original building 34-42 Church Street in 1948 was destroyed by fire; a tanker delivering fuel to a gas station had a leak which caused the fuel to leak into the gutter,
and unknowingly someone carelessly discarding
a cigarette that sparked the fire.
The intensity of the flame caused the asphalt in
parade ( many miles away) to begin melting.
Thanks to the help of two American war ships
which were in the harbor and offered to extinguish
the fire by the use of pumped sea water.
Most of Kingston would have been lost,
had they not been able to extinguish the flame that
was very close to the building that stored thousand of gallons of gasoline, drums of oil and thinner to
maintain the cars and the workshop.