ANOTHER FIRE IN WESTPORT.

West Coast Times, Issue 1329, 25 December 1869, Page 4 (Supplement)

ANOTHER FIRE IN WESTPORT.

THREE HOUSES BURNT. (From the Westport Times, t> , 1 ) The l ■ /. .i i ' ■■ ■ . ■-. red from the alanu and 'en < .. ion caused by the gieat fire rf "-atnrl I.^1 .^ reek, wh n a similar but ortunafely less serious disaster occurred. By a singular coincidence a fire broke out on Saturday again — on the same block on which the first fire occurred, an-1 nearly at the same hour. Towaids tun o'clock people were reminding each other of the occurrence of the previous Saturday evening, and speculating as to whether this .Saturday was to pas-, without anj r incident, \vhtn the alarm of fire was »>gjin raised, and, sure enough, a lire there was. Another coincidence was that it broke out almost at the point at which the first fire had ceased, and it hns demolished the buildings which on that occasion were spared. This was in Freeman-street. On the north side of that street there stood three h.mses, occupying grouud between the scene of the first lire and a right-of-wdy. By then siy;nb)ar<ls they figured as hnu Is, but were not really so - at least not :\\] of th m. Ther • was rirs , and next to Gladstone-street, the Old House at Home, occupied hy Mr ' homa-s Hush and his family. Next door was what was called the Ship Inn, hut wiiat was occupied hy two women, i'onroy a d Culburn, " with out a license. The third was a larger building than eth r, once known as the Q.C.R, UntJ, but lately as the Napoleon Third Hotel. Tt had only been taken possession of a few da\s before by Mr Cato. whose hoir-e, the Golden Age, was one of the hotels burnt in the fire of December 4, and who has thus been twice burnt out within ;i week. The fire orginated in the centre house of the three — the Nhip Inn. Tbv flames had apparently a good hold of the building before they were discovered, and little or nothing was saved from the house. Probably there was not much to save. There was some anxiety about the safety of the inmates, as it was rumored tint some persons in an indifferent state of sobriety had been in and out of the house duiing the day; but it proves that there was no one in the hon«e at the time the fire occurred and the fears which existed as to the loss of life have been allayed. For a moment there was a similar fear with regard to Mr Bush's hou-e. Mrs Bush hud "one out, leaving only a child asleep in th- house, and when the alarm was raised, there was also raised the cry ■'There's a child there; save the child." Fortunately the child was saved, although the building was at the time on fire and Cull ot smoke. Frederick Walker and Henri Pain pushed their way in throu.'h the thick smoke, found the child, and brought it out. The tenant of the Q.C.K. — Mrs Cato, formerly Mrs Myers — was in the act of fitting up her new home when she was forced to fld' from it, saving most of the few articles on the preniist s. Among these was a pocket-book, containing two £» notes, besides other papers of value, j which happened, fortunately, to be picked up at the last moment Dy one of the volunteer assistants. Within a few minutes all the three t<ui ding*, won* together in a blaze, ;iad in half-an-hour truy were a mass of burning emhers. The buildings most in danger through proximity to the fire were Mr Kirkwood's store, now in the occu: ation of Mr Falla, j and the store occupied by Mr Organ. Both contained a quantity of beer in cask, and other goods, and Mr Fall I ad only completed the work of "fixing" the goo 's saved from the former fire when it once more became necessary, in his store and in •lie; next to it, t • turn everything out upon the street. The store itself had :dso a very \ narrow escape. The walls smoked as if they really were on fire, and it was only by the crowd opportunely i diverting their attention from others ]>ointr <>f dft'iger a^'l bestowing upon them ac n: j'jh jvatc is lid • rocitred :at the bin! ilg -as pn ?'ited u:itil ivy dangei oi gnit m wai ass Next in" dKiige- we-; the B.dlam: md Bend Hotel, th Ca :nc, Si'.-rrk's Lond :n Tavern, and .ttigti.us bu:'.iings. The cancer was not .r.renr 2, but for the safety of the property itself and of the block in which they stand, precautions were taken by c >vering the fronts with blimkets and denehing them weil with water. Kehind t (l e buildings which weie burnt there was »i strong array of fences, which were at on :o torn down, otherwise the fire would have communicated with the school-house and other building in Moleswoith street, including the Miori camp, which was veiy speedily vacated by its inmates, along with all iheir " household gods." Two of the buildings destroyed — the Q.C.E. Hotel and the Ship Hotel—belonged to Mr J. A. M. Turner, who had other property in somewhat imminent danger. The two buildings may be valued as worth from H 300 to £400. The other building, we believe, belonged to Mr Bush The origin of the fire is more a mystery than was that of the former fire, but, as in the other case, a kerosene lamp seems to have had something to do with it. In the --hip Inn there was on the one side, a sirtingroom, with two bedrooms behind, and on the other side a bar and a large back room. There was a bracket lamp on the wall in the front room, and a pendant lamp in the room at the back of the barBoth lumps, it is said, had been 1 1, and one supposition is that the pendant lamp, which was suspended from the roof by a piece of twine or rope, had set fire to the latter ; that the lamp thus fell ; and that the floor was thereby ignited. Mrs

Onto; it is said, heard something fall in | ho house, and about a q;i;irter of an hour ifterwards the reflection of the fire was seen on the front of Mrs Mills'* Hotel on :he opposite side of the utreet But this s inconsistent with oth t circumstances, one of which is that a person was in the house only a few minutes before the fire occurred, and another is that those who Brst entered the premise* thought the fire emanated from one of the bedrooms. The absence of inmates was due to the fact that one of the girls went out to seek the ather when their visitor called. He went out also, and in a few minutes heard the cry of "Fire," when he ran hack and saved iome clothes. But, whatever mny have been the circumstances, they will, no doubt, be fully investigated to-day, when an inquest takes place before tue Coroner, at three o'clock. The fact of their being burnt out twice within a wei k naturally excited sympathy for Mr and Mrs Cato, and within an hour after the fire, by some gentlemen actively exerting themselves, there was collected a sum sufficiently handsome to be useful, and, we have no doubt, appreciated. We may add that, for another sufferer by ihe fire, who was an absentee, and lost everything, Air William Graham, of Giles Terrace, has industriously sought friendly assistance, chiefly on the Terrace?, and has been rewarded for his labor by finding a large amount of liberality.