A TERRIBLE FIRE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3004, 10 February 1881, Page 4

A TERRIBLE FIRE.

The St Petersburg correspondent of the S. M. Herald, writing on the sth October last, says :—On the 14th of this month, St. Petersburg witnessed a most extraordinary spectacle, the consequence of which might have been terrific. Near the New Litaine Bridge (built by Struve, across the Neva), along the left border of the river, more than a hundred barges, loaded with hay and wood, caught fire somehow (the cause is yet unknown), and began simultaneously to burn. The fire rapidly took fearful dimensions, the day being warm, although there was no wind. In less than half-an-hour, the corde that held the barges having snapped, they were carried down the river by the current, all flaming, and so endangering all the other ships on their way. Two large floating bridge n of the Palace and Troitsky were immediacy pulled aside to lut the burning bargew pass. The principal focus of the fire presented an awful sight —it was a seething furnace, out of which, one after another, the barges came forth. No efforts on the part of the firemen assembled from all parts of the town could do any good. Several small steamboats performed prodigies of courage, and took the burning barges in tow for some distance. Count Loris Melikoff was present encouraging the men to work. The fire began at half-past 1 p.m.. and ended the next day at the same hour. The losses are estimated at half-a-million at least. The whole town was filled during several hours with such a thick smoke that the streete were so dark that the gaslights could hardly be seen. These terrible events are, alas, so common here, that the public does not take the least interest in them, and the most heart-rending accounts of the victims of the frequent conflagrations that nocur make little impression even upon the kindest people, for there is no human possibility to alleviate in any sensible degree, Mie numerous sufferers, especially in the provinces.