A GREAT LONDON FIRE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10666, 10 June 1902, Page 3

A GREAT LONDON FIRE.

■••*• than «1 ,000,000 Damasj*.

' LONDON-, April 25. London has again been visited by one of those grave disasters by fire which seem to recur periodically m the older and narrowed thoroughfares of the city. It was, about 11 o'clock on Monday night that the fire broke out raj the Barbican, near the General Post Office, and in less than half aa hour xhe whole street was ablate, the fire ■preadiag to the thoroughfares known as N«w Zealand and Australian avenues. In less than two hours no fewer taa* 29 shops, seven warehouses, and a ■tobacco factory had been destroyed, the total damage being estimated at considerably over £1,000,000 -sterling. The area in which the outbreak occurred has an unenviable reputation » the matter of fires. Here have been ■een many of the most disastrous conflagrations known in the' metropolis. It is looked upon, in' consequence, as a dangerous 1 area, and so soon as an alarm «t fire from the quarter is re*?T^S.*" c fee brigade,, and salvage authorities feel that they are likely to fca»e a big job in hand. Their fears '**}* *uuy justified on Monday night. What i« known as a "brigade call"— indicating a serious outbreak— was given, and from the Sic brigades' headquarters in Southwark, engines and steamen were ordered on to the city fire from all quarters of London. When the first arrivals from the fire atations reached Barbican, it was evi-' jUnt that a serious task was before the •ngade. . A hat manufacturer's establishment, close to Australian Avenue, •was folly enveloped in flames. The fire waa everywhere in the establishment, helped in its destructive progress by the ■ature of the stock and the materials which are used in the process of hat manufacture. The flames spread rapidly, seized upon premises of hat manufacturers, milliners, and offices, and leapt right across the street to other buildings occupied by other millinerymaker* and leather-goods people. So that very soon the firemen found they had a terrific fire biasing on both sides of the street and threatening to spread in all directions. The flames rose nigh, and on the bright, dear night, shed a threatening radiance over a wide district. Fire engines arrived by the dosen, and every appliance used in the extinguishing of fire was brought into tise. For a long while the flamtea beat the. firemen; building after building -waa attacked. To the ordinary onlooker it was a wondrous thing that such a blaze could ever be ended. To the dogged firemen, who knew the enemy, it was different. They knew, their force would tell in the long ran.' They surrounded the fire zone with their appliances, and then, hour after hour, 'they fought the flames, and finally conquered. Daybreak on Tuesday revealed an extraordinary scene of desolation. Barbican, New Zealand Avenue, and Australian Avenue had undergone a metamorphosis of the most startling de- 1 acription. Viewing Barbican from Aldersgate Street, the prospect — seen through the smoke and steam which rose in opaque volumes from the water and drenched and half-consumed remnants of valuable stock, and the rubble of disintegrated stona ?nd brickwork — waa everywhere one of appaling destruction and damage. Huge buildings, several of which had been only recently built, were in ruins, only to be, marked by standing skeletons of iron framework, to which fragments of stone dressing still dung insecurely; and what on Monday had been compact suites of offices retained not a vestige of their original identity on Tuesday. Fortunately no one was killed, but there' wine several narrow escapes, and one. or two firemen were injured. At one time ft looked as if the flames would travel down to Smithfield Market. But a change in the direction of the wind carried the fire off in a more ' southerly direction. On Tuesday it was rumoured that the New Zealand Insurance offices in London had suffered loss through division of risks, but I am informed that it is not the custom of these offices to take fire risks here — { only marine risks. I

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