DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN MELBOURNE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7349, 2 December 1907, Page 2

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN MELBOURNE.

Per Press Association —Copyright

MELBOURNE, December 1

A destructive fire started at ten o'clock last night in the five-storey warehouse of Clark and Company, in Elizabeth street, adjoining, at the rear, the Commonwealth Telegraph and Money Order Offices).

The fire spread with tremendous rapidity, enveloping Wallach's large furniture warehouse, Dux Cycle Works, and a number of smaller places.

By an early hour this morning the brigades had obtained the mastery.

Clark's and Wallach's premises were practically gutted. Serious damage was done to Commonwealth property, including the destruction of thousands of pounds' worth of telephone wire and material. Various adjoining properties suffered severely. The whole city was brilliantly lighted, and an immense concourse of people watched the fire. A crowded verandah opposite the outbreak collapsed, and several persons were ' injured.

Received December 2, 1.50 a.m

MELBOURNE, December 2

The fire was the largest for twelve years. The value of the property destroyed was close on £60,000. An official report states that the Poshal Department lost £16,000 worth of material. It is feared that considerable public inconvenience will be caused by the loss of telephone instruments and wire.

Received December 2, 8.50 a.m

The fire raged for hours, and threatened to demolish the whole block boimded by Elizabeth, Lonsdale/Swanston and Little Bourke streets.

The fire started in a blind alley, among a great pile of packing cases and straw, stacked up against the rear portion of Clark and Company's warehouse floor.

After the floor of the warehouse gave | way, the fire defied the efforts of the brigade for some hours, when Clark's was a mass of fire, which steered northward in a great crest of flame, and 1 swept over to the Money Order Office in the Post Office block. When the walls of Clark's fell, the small shops beneath became a chaos of red-hot bricks and blazing timber. Wit/h this crash went the relies of early Melbourne, as these shops, which cracked like eggshells, were hiiillT in 1844 " " ■ -"::: ■■■-'■ -"'•■ ~ '■■ " • • llie syind, fortunately, changed to the; south, and thp pressure' on the Post Office was relioved, and the more serious results of the fire were confined to Clark's and Wallach's buildings, where the postal material was stored. A^OfHER FIR£. A block of eight two-storied shops has been destroyed by firp in West Melbourne, ' ... ,'