GREAT FIRE IN VICTORIA, B.C.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12653, 6 September 1904, Page 6

GREAT FIRE IN VICTORIA, B.C.

59 BUILDINGS REDUCED TO ASHES. j Victoria {8.C.), August 9. A KmDLr-DrgPosED Providence alone saved : Victoria to-day from destruction -by fire. I The start of what was the largest conflagration the city has ever known was in the casting-room of the Albion . Ironworks, on Discovery-street, where heavy pieces of machinery in the moulds were being run. Fifty-nine buildings in all are in ashes, with a loss of perhaps 200,000 dollars. In a majority of cases the contents'of the residences were saved, but the insurance will scarcely cover 30 per cent, of the loss. The workmen at the ironworks undertook to extinguish the flames on. the roof and cupola, • delaying in giving :* an alarm until,, with a half gale from the southwest raging, the fire bad gained great headway, licking up the boiler, machine and casting rooms, with hundreds of valuable patterns.- .■;■■..■>':■'■'.'->'■'•■■■'■ The flames took a curious comer-wise leap of 200 yards across the Shawnigan Lake Lumber Company's yards and mills, missing also the Pioneer "spice mills and large Victoria brewery, and then consumed a row of frame residential structures, nine in number, oa Pembroke-street. Douglas-street was then crossed, aad the residences thereon'■ from Pembroke to Princess Avenue were, burned. The flames next swept up the south side of Princess Avenue missing only two buildings in its entire length, and next devastated the north side of Princess Avenue and the south side of Queen's Avenue from end to end. v: The vacant acreage, in large blocks, beyond Blanch ard-street on the one side and Queen's Avenue, together with the dyinff out of the wind, saved the city, for with hydrant pressure of 261b and inadequate hose, the brigade was helpless.