FIRE AT SADDLE HILL.

Evening Star, Issue 3264, 6 August 1873, Page 2

FIRE AT SADDLE HILL.

A fire occurred at Saddle Hill at 5.30 a.m. yesterday, by which a stable and three horses that were in it were destroyed. From the information collected by the police it appears that Donald M‘Master, a brother of John M‘Master, one of the owners of the property, took a broken lantern into the stable for the purpose of cleaning the horses, and had a small piece of candle lighted in the lantern, and through one side of the lantern being broken, and the lantern being hung on the side of the stable near the door, a piece of loose straw from the thatch caught fire, and, through the roof being a thatched one, it immediately caught fire. There were five horses in the stable, and Donald M'Master could only manage to save two of them. Although he cut the ropes that tied the other three horses, he could not drive them out of the stable, and three horses were burned to death ; a barn and two sheds also took fire, and were burned down before any assistance came. When some neighbors arrived they managed to save one stack of straw and the dwelling house. The following is a list of the property destroyed by the fire :—One four-stall stable, one chaff-shed, one cart-shed, one barn, which contained about 100 bushels of wheat, 800 bushels of oats, twe bags of oatmeal, and eighty bushels of rye grass seed, a chaff-cutter, three horses, six sets of harness, two saddles and bridles, four sets of plough harness, a tip dray, one double harness, one roller and frame, and a number of poultry, all of which Mr M‘Master estimates to be worth LSOO at the very lowest calculation. The whole of the property was uninsured. Mr John M*Master and his son are old settlers in the Saddle hill district, and are very industrious. Donald M‘Master had both his hands burned trying to save the horses. Part of the grain had been already sold, and Mr M‘Master was only waiting for the roads to improve in in order to remove from the barn.