BIG LONDON FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 21, 26 January 1938, Page 10

BIG LONDON FIRE

N€W EQUIPMENT USED

WATCHMAN'S LIFE LOST

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, December 29.

One of the most spectacular fires seen in Central London occurred on Boxing Day, when 250 firemen vainly endeavoured to save the five-storeyed building of the Gramophone Company, Ltd., manufacturers of His Master's Voice products. The building was gutted, and 100,000 records, 250 radiogramophones and radio sets, and 100 washing machines were destroyed. All traffic was diverted from Oxford Street, London's most crowded thoroughfare, while thirty fire brigades endeavoured to suppress the outbreak. For the first time in the history of the brigade a large canvas tank, designed for service in air raid precaution measures, was used to provide extra pressure for the hoses. It was set up in the middle of Oxford Street. Other apparatus used included 100 ft water-towers and a "water-howitzer," which discharged 500 gallons a minute into the heart of the building. The watchman, Sergeant William Glover Travis, of the Corps of Commissionaires, lost his life in a gallant attempt to deal with the outbreak single-handed. He had run out two of the emergency hoses, and had reached the door of the telephone room when he was overcome by fumes. Had he wished to escape, he could have done so by any one of the three exits. His body was found in the ruins. The value of the stock contained in the premises when the fire broke out was approximately £30,000. The building was valued at about £45,000. Salvage Corps officials found that a number of refrigerators on the first floor, though blackened by smoke and fire, still contained ice in perfect condition. Of the paper files of the company, containing trade data and hire purchase agreements, little is left. Only a number of sealed pay envelopes, sodden with water but still intact, was rescued from the cashier's desk. The firm's trade sign of a dog listening to a phonograph was one of the few articles that escaped serious damage.