BIG LONDON FIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14301, 22 February 1910, Page 6

BIG LONDON FIRE.

TEN SHOPS V IN FLAMES. A great fire broke out on January 13 ill a block of ten drapers' shops belonging to Messrs. B. B. Evans and Co., in High Road, Kilburn, London,. N.W., and sent bareheaded assistants flying for safety to the street. When the. shop was a mass of flames one of the girls who had escaped suddenly remembered that a pet. black retriever dog, known as Nigger, had been left upstairs in the staff quarters. She ran to one of the doors and called the dog's name. The animal, which had remained upstairs terrified, heard the ir\. It- rushed down the stairs and escaped safely into the street, jumping round the girl in joyful recognition. In spite of the strenuous efforts of the firemen", who were quickly present i ii large numbers, the fire seemed to leap from shop to shop. A little squad of men hurried to the rear of the premises to get the horses out of some stables, borne of the rescuers ran to first-floor rooms in the mews to warn an elderly couple v v lived there. An old woman refused to leave, without iter cat, "as she could not bear the thought 'if its being burned to death." The rescuers pulled her down the stairs against her will. T>v 6.50 the three shops on the north of the block were a huge furnace ho roofs were entirely consumed, w' V' angry red glow showed in the ' ' of the shops on the south side, ing ladders were run up by the t » and nimble men hastened to the toj them and directed water- from the • nozzles through the upper windov spac ' The two shops at the far end were soon reduced to a framework of walls. - denlv one of the walls was seen to .J. " Look out," roared voices. ' 11 , , scuttled like rabbits from the juadway in front. It was only just in M in( ;; ' came, the brickwork, parts of it descend in"- at a considerable distance. • One of the girl assistants gave the following account of the outbie.ik. had just finished tea, and had gone o our rooms, which overlooked the kilbtnn Hi'di Road, when we heard shouts of ' Fire!' from the street and a great noise. We threw open a window and saw stnoKe and flames issuing from the centre of tne row of shops. The smoke began to come thtousjh the floor beneath our feet- we turned and ran as fast as we could down a corridor in the direction of an non fireescape ladder. By this means we go! safely to the ground.'-'