A DISASTROUS FIRE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1268, 19 June 1886, Page 3

A DISASTROUS FIRE.

The official report of the Govern r of Lemberg on the recent terrible fire at Stry, ia Hungary, has been published. Ic begins with the words, “ The lately fi mrishing town of Stry has ceased lo exist ” This, the Vienna correspondent of the " Times” says, is literally true for not a whole street has been saved. Here and there, by miraculous hazird, one or two buildings have escaped destruction, while all the edifices around them are burnt. The Greek Catholic church has come out unscathed as out of a furnace, but It is the only place of worship left standing. Its clergy have thrown it open temporarily for the service of their Doman Catholic brethren. The number of deaths by the fire is reckoned to exceed 100, Some accounts that hive appeared of hundreds having perished, including fifty children in a school, are happily much exaggerated. The correspondent goes on to say he wishes he could add that there had been some exaggeration in the stories of plunder committed by peasants and others, but these have been only too true. The p'ison of Lsraberg had received up to Blh April, 86 mis creanta who had been arrested ia the act of robbery. Some of these were habitual criminals who were released from tfe prison of Stry during the fire, but tl 6 greater number were balf-birbarons peasants. Many of the shopkeepers of Stry were Jews, and it is explained that the peasantry tbii.k it no crima to plunder Jews. In or e instance the plunder brought a heavy retribution. Some peasants having loaded a c»rt with stolen furniture, drove it rapidly to their Village without noticing thet one of the articles had been partially burnt, and sai still smouldering. The cart having been unloaded near a heap of straw, the wind fanned some sparks into a flame, which caught the straw, and the fire spread thence to some thatched cottages. It was im possible to save these, and 11 of them were burned to the ground. The cold round Stry is intense, and it is touching to relate that a great many of the poor Jews who are camping out have refused to be conveyed away because their religion borbids them to set out on a journey during the week of their Passover. Some of these people have also had the stoicism to decline the bread offered to them because it was not unleavened. The newspapers publish lists of the inhabitants who have been totally ruined. There are 300 officials among the number, 35 pensioned officers, and over 500 trades men. The jewellers in the town had their stock completely destroyed.