SERIOUS FIRE IN SYDNEY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12550, 11 July 1901, Page 5

SERIOUS FIRE IN SYDNEY.

A GREAT EMPORIUM DESTROYED, ENORMOUS DAMAGE. LOSS OF LIFE. United Prws Association—By Electric Telegraph—^Copyright. SYDNEY, July 10. A fire is raging in Anthony Hoideira's immense emporium in George Street. It Ims a good told of the main building, and! as a stiff wind is Mewing, it threatens to sweep the whole block through to '■ Bit* Street.- There is a'large city gasometer close to the vicinity of the fire. Tram traffic in George Street is blacked, and an immense crowd; is gathering. RAPID SPREAD OF THE FIRE. ' GASWORKS THREATENED. • SYDNEY, 10.17 a.m. The fire, assisted by tb© wind up the lift shafts and immense quantities of inflammable material, spread with tremendous rapidity. The main building is already practically gutted, though still burning fiercely. The fire spread across Parker Street in the rear to the large furnishing department, which as now one muss flames. The big gasometer adjoins this building. The whole fire forces of the city are engaged. The work is dangerous, owing to the towering walls threatening to collapse. The firemen are slowly beating back the fire from, the George Street frontage. The occupiers of shops stretching from the doomed building to Hay Street are getting out their goods in fear of the fire spreading from the rear. WHEN THE FIRE WAS DISCOVERED. A MAN REPORTED KILLED. The fire was discovered shortly after eight o'clock, luckily before many of the army of people employed in the buildings arrived. It is reported that one man was killed while jumping from the roof. The burning debris was. carried a great distance, and set fire to a house A but this fire was quickly subdued. 1 Hordern's Pitt Street side, in the direction the wind is blowing, is flanked by the Park, which will prevent a further spread that way. THE FIRE UNDER CONTROL. THE WHOLE OF HORDERfN'S ESTABLISHMENT DESTROYED. SYDNEY, 11.28 a.m. The fire is in band. The Brigade confined its efforts to prevent it spreading beyond Hordern's establishment, and succeeded. . Excepting the ironmongery department, a detached building, the whole pre- , mises are gutted, and only the walls are standing. The damage is estimated at £IOO,OOO. The man killed was an employee named i Glegg> " ■ ' FURTHER PARTICULARS. | THE DEATH OF CLEGG. A TERRIBLE SIGHT. (Received July 10, p.m.) SYDNEY, July 10. About 8.20., just as the employees were beginning to arrive to commence their daily duties, a fire was discovered in .the basement of the central building of a huge block, covering several acres. , The employee who discovered the fire found it m the picture-frame • division of the toy department. He »made an effort to extinguish it with buckets of water'kept for fire purposes, but the gimcrack nature of the toy. department fed the flames with avidity, and they quickly ascended to the ground floor, which was devoted to drapery. The. whole of the central buildings were of a most inflammable nature, and in a few moments : were a pile of seething flames/, which roared '■ through the windows like a! blast furnace, leapt across Parker Street, a distance of ; about eighty feet, and entered the second storey of a giant furniture warehouse, a hundred feet high, and facing the gasometers. From floor to floor it rushed -with incredible fury, breaking through the windows of each floor, and admitting a strong southerly wind to hasten, the work'of destruction. A great concourse of spectators gathered, and a thrill of horror shot through them. as. the lonely figure of a man appeared on the top of the parapet. He clung to the ornamental brickwork on the top of the building, shifting his position occasionally as a gust of wind fanned a tongue of flame from the windows beneath, in his direction. Then came the life-saving apparatus, ! and there was a marvellous hush over all „as the spidery ladders unreeled in the direction of the parapet, broken by an audible moan as the ladders failed to reach within thirty feet. Meantime, the rocket brigade tried to fire a line over the building, but for some reason, at present unexplained, the apparatus failed. The flames now and again made a ferocious lick at tho victim, who saw his only hope of deliverance gone. Then, with a gesture of despair, he jumped a clear hundred feet into the roadway, and never again stirred. When the flames took hold of the building, Constable Conroy and two firemen ascended to the top storey, to see if they could find Clegg, his fellow-employees havin°" given warning of the man's position. The lop /floor was searched without avail. The man had evidently gone through the trap-door on the roof. The other hands saved themselves by sliding from, the upperfloors down the lift rope. Some were found at the bottom of the lift well nigh -overcome by smoke. Had the fire occurred air hour or so later, when the huge establishment was in full swing, with a throng of customers, the loss of life must have been crreat. The flames went through the lower floors like & flafh, cutting off escape. While the tragedy was enacted on the eastern building, the flames crept across the narrow right-of-way, and worked against the wind to large buildings facing George Street. Three-storey buildings, containing mercery and saddlery, were socn enveloped, and the flames swept out the offices and climbed rapidly from floor to floor of the seven-storey building adjoining. Several smaller shops,' belonging to other owners, ivere annihilated by the fire in a few minutes. Backward in the centre division went the flames till they came against the wall of the huge pile devoted to ironmongery/The ■p: r e Brigadi; worked with desperation to «ave the structure. The fire got in the upper storey, but the Brigade managed to

subdue it, and save the building from the ravages of the flames, although, water will have caused great damage. When it waa seen that a conflagration) of a great character was imminent, steps wera taken immedia'tely to discharge the -gas from three gasometers, which was successfully accomplished. The buildings used by ith© caretaker, audi the laboratory and showroom of the Gas Company, were destroyedl. For a great distance round the street looked as if it had been subjected to a volcanic eruption, being covered to « depth of inches with cinders. % By eleven o'clock all danger of further spread wag over. Rumours are current that other lives have been lost, but the confusion is too great at present to learn whether therei is any -truth in. the assertions. It is difficult to know the damage, although a million, is stated. INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE. . (Received July 10, 10.20 p.m.) / SYDNEY, July 10.. Some two hundred early hands, iircluding a number of women, were in the building when the fire broke out. Those on* the higher floors had difficulty hi escaping, Al man oiamed Borthwick, employed on the top storey, had his escape cut off. He attempted to descend by a rope from; the window, but fell, breaking a leg. Twoothers were in the lift well. The lift descended and held them prisoners. Firemen released them. Clegg's coat caught fire as he stood on the parapet. He threw. it off, then knelt a moment, evidently praying, rose and jumped. Many employees assisted the firemen in the early stages o? tho conflagration, Clegg and two otherg working the hose. Seeing the position! to be dangerous, the superintendent ordered them to desist. Clegg evidently failed to take the warning till too late, and then; found his retreat cut off. The employees managed to save a considerable amount of property from tho departments adjoining the main building. They 'also saved books and papers. ; The firm has already taken steps io secure temporary premises to carry on business. It has reserve. stocks valued at a million and a quarter in warehouses in the city, secured'in anticipation of the'Federal tariff. THE INSURANCES. (Received July 11, 1.15 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 10... '■ So far as can be gathered the local insurance companies are little affected by Hordern's fire. The New Zealand offices involved are:—South British £10,500, New Zealand £5168. The insurances amount to about £400,000. The bulk are in British: coaepanies. [Pee Pbess.Association.} AUCKLAND, July 10. . The South! British Insurance Company's net line* on Hordem and Cc-.'s and other buildings destroyed by the fir© in. Sydney is £3250. The New Zealand Insurance Company's line on the buildings destroyed in the Sydney fire was £3400.