THE GREAT FIRE.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 160, 18 July 1901, Page 3

THE GREAT FIRE.

HORDERN’S MAMMOTH BUILDINGS.

POOR CLEGG’S ROOM,

Sydney, July 10. The mammoth emporium of Anthony Hordern and Sons, Haymarket, was today the scene of one of the greatest fires in tho records of Australia. Huge buildings forming a magnificent block were ’ burnt out and gutted, and at the moment ' of writing the fate of a scorched and ‘ blackened remnant trembles in the balance. It is not too much to say that the business of the whole city has been affected. Thousands of people were mustered in George-street and its environs viewing the magnificent and awful spectacle. Men and women employed in the emporium stood this morning on the abyss of death. The whole of the electric tram service along George-street was blocked, and the empty cars extended the full length of the thoroughfare. Startled and terror-stricken faces were on all sides. There was a rumor once that the Australian Gas Co.’s gasometer close by was bursting, and thousands made a frantic rush towards the railway station. A LEAP FOR LIFE. Shortly before 8.30 a deep cry of anguish hurst forth. On the highest point of one building, from which smoke and fire were 1 issuing, there appeared the solitary figure I of a man. It seomed that he would have 1 a hope by descending the interior, but the

brave though despairing man had evidently reckoned the chances, as he stood on his funeral pyre. On the very pinnacle of a lurid pit of rushing llame stood the death-marked picture of courageous despair—lso feet above tho blanched and trembling crowd. A rocket apparatus would have saved poor Clegg. “ Oh, my God ! Save him ! Save him I” was tho cry from people who knew not what to do. Sometimes he was obscured by the smoke, and he could seo the flames leaping from the windows below him. A rush was made for fire escapes. Fifteen—then twenty—minutes passed, and still ho bravely stood awaiting rescue or death 1 It scorned that he must soon fall back into the awful inferno that was roaring beneath him. He was seen to look back into tho depths as I though calculating how much longer he was to lie of this world. Ladders wore tried. They were not long enough. The black pall of smoke overhanging was now and then disturbed by a rush of air, and I the sun shone through the gloom, forming part of the fiery splendor. The lonely l figure, reminding one of a thrilling inci- I dent in a brilliant pen picture of the burning of Romo, evidently saw that tho fire- ]

men were poworless to reach him. no removed his hat, and with head bared to

the hot air, ho knelt on the parapet, in sight of the thousands, and seemingly prayed to tho merciful Almighty. The women spectators sobbed, and there wore few men whoso hearts wore not deeply touched by the sight. The figure rose —- “ Oil, my God I Oh, my God !” were the cries of spectators, while thousands sobbed almost in silence. Half an hour had passed. The llaines roared, and there were reports as though hundreds of Maxim guns were at work, while blazing fragments shot from the soothing cauldron. Firemen had a tarpaulin spread—the only chance The man's coat was ablaze. Ho made the leap—lso feet into space, but alas, as all hal anticipated, the loap was fatal. Down the poor man crashed, a terrible thud on the hard road, a maimed and bleeding wreck. Tho expiring man was quickly conveyed to the hospital, but he died before reaching there. Some spectators deelaro that they saw another come out to the top of tho building, and then fall back into the Uames. ESCAPE OF GIRLS. Tho firm employs thousands of hands, including an army of young women and girls. When itbecamo noised abroad that tho place was in flames there wore anxious inquiries regarding this multitude. It was providential that tho fire should not have broken out after they had reached their departments. On trooping into tho city by trains and trams and steamers tlioy learnt that they had been spared the panic by a little over half an hour. The imagination is staggered at tho thought of what might havo been the deathroll had tho females been in tho buildings when the fire started on its lightning career.

In Gipps street the fire was fiercest. Tho flames were wafted by tho strong breGZO to tho adjoining building, and.in a very short space of time the whole of the frontages in Gipps and George streets were alight. Soon thc mammoth columns of brick appeared like so many miniature volcanoes, belching forth flame and smoke. Tho various buildings were only separated by lanes so narrow that it was impossible for the brigades to work in them, and the attacks were made on tho various street frontages.

VIEWED FROM THE STREET. The spectacle which presented itself to the view of the dense crowd on the crown of Brickfield Hill was one which thrilled. The entire building was crowned with (lame, while column after column of yellow, blue, and green commingled with a dense mass of grey-tinted smoke, and rolled away against the leaden sky of morning. The firemen worked like Trojans, but the streams of water which were poured into tho burning buildings appeared powerless to overcome the volume of llame.

In George street it was seen that the great building facing the city's main thoroughfare was doomed. Tho huge expanse of wall, on tho southern side, was cracked in many places, and fears wore expressed by onlookers that it would soon collapse.

A glance up Parker Lano from Campbell street was like looking into the mouth of a furnace. Huge bodies of flame flashed across from building to building, and the various stages by which communication was made were alight and falling among tho mass of wreckage below. The smoko was so dense that- the firemen could scarcely breathe, and they were, moreover, in momentary danger of being injured by the falling material.

Terror-stricken owners rushed here and there in their anxiety to do something towards salvage. Women, with pale faces, "on which the panic had set its mark, were led from the buildings. At Hordern's ladders were instantly brought into use. A number of young women were by this means rescued, and were led, overcome with terror, to places of safety, “GIVING THE ALARM.

The alarm reached the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Station at 5.28 a.m., just about the time when the employees were preparing for the day's business. The first intimation the city in general had of the disaster was about ten minutes* later, when a huge volume of dense smoke 'was belched heavenwards, attracting attention from all directions. It is understood that the occurred in the centre of three buildings which stood in Campbell street. The infiammaule nature of tho stock formed a rapid spread of fire, and within a few minutes the whole building was a mass of roaring dames. By the time the first engines arrived all hope of saving that building was gone; in a remarkably short space of time the other two buildings were on fire, and all attempts to save them were in vain. The llames, assisted by a gentle breeze, and increased by the draught caused by the excessive heat, jumped across Parker street on the one side, and Parker lane on the other, and for a time it was feared the wholo block would be laid in ruins.

Meanwhile, while the Gipps street front was a mass of flames the fire was rapidly extending back along Parker street and Parker lane, through the firm’s 'buildings, and jumping across in places. Every energy of the firemen was directed to staying its progress. But the streauls of water seemed to have no apppreeiabie effect. Soon the flames burst through the roof of the George street front, and in a short space of time the 1 building was gutted. Tho loweP buildings on the George street frontage proved a cheek to the fire on that side, but in Parker street it was still making progress. The wind veered a little from the south-west to south, and was somewhat fresher. By half-past ten, when the fire was still burning briskly, smoke began to issue from beneath the roofing and through the windows of the new building in the centre of the George street block.

In Castlereagh street and Elizabeth street, citywards from the fire, the streets were hidden by cinders. There was a continuous shower of live wood coals, pieces of burning cloth, paper cinders, and ashes, and under less favorable weather conditions the places in the vicinity would have been in great peril.