FIRE IN COLOMBO STREET.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1213, 23 January 1878, Page 2

FIRE IN COLOMBO STREET.

DESTRUCTION OF THE A 1 HOTEL. About a quarter past two o’clock this morning what turned out to be a fire of serious dimensions broke out in a building in Colombo street, situate between the A 1 Hotel and Scrimshaw’s upholstery warehouse. The house in which the flames were first discovered is a one-storey building jointly occupied by Mr Roberts, watchmaker, and Mr Parker, who has under the same roof a registry office. In the same building there was also a room used as a barber’s shop, and some are of opinion that the fire originated in this room. At any rate the flames first appeared in the back premises of the registry. Naturally there were but few persons in the street at its occurrence, but these few were active in alarming the inmates of the A 1 Hotel, and in utilising the few minutes there were to spare in saving some of the clocks and other property within easy reach in Mr Roberts’s front shop. As their numbers increased, some activity was shown also in saving the contents of Mr Scrimshaw’s warehouse, but the fiames spread with such rapidity that this could only partially be done. The wall of the hotel contiguous to the burning buildings was of brick to the full height of the house, and some hope was entertained that it might escape, but the wood-work of the upper windows soon caught fire, and the flames, communicated to the furniture and fittings of the rooms, soon gained strength, and, after a short interval, burst through the roof, which in half an hour was all ablaze.

Very few minutes elapsed between the first alarm; and the appearance on the scene of the fire engines, members of the brigades in considerable force, with the police and fire police, and as scon as a supply of water was obtained, which was not long, efforts were simultaneously directed to the saving of Jersey House and Clothing Factory on the one side, and the A 1 Hotel on the other. The firstwork was comparatively easy, the wind blowing the flames from the building, and it is also only two storeys high. In the other case the circumstances were different. Tho hotel is one of the tallest buildings in the city, the building being three storeys high, each of considerable altitude ; and the power of the engines was only equal to throwing the water to the height of the windows of the third storey, through which a steady stream was poured. But meantime the flames continued to catch hold of the roof rafters and rapidly extended towards the Cashel street frontage. By three o’clock the entire upper floor of the building was on fire, and the appearances were so serious that fears were entertained for the safety of Beath and Co.’s drapery store, between which and the hotel there was only a one-storey building, similar to the store, occupied by Mr Lane, butcher. As a measure of precaution, the wind being from the south-west, much of Mr Beath’s stock was rapidly removed and deposited on the other side of the street. The same precaution was taken with regard to the stock in Mr Pratt’s shop next to Beath’s. At this stage there was an evident want of management on the part of the fire brigade, and it was the opinion of many that had judgment had been shown in the disposition of the fire engines, and had those engines been worked up to their full power, Mr Beath’s premises might have been saved. Instead of allowing the engines to play on the front of the hotel, which by this time was doomed, it was the general opinion that much more good might have been effected by directing attention more to the back premises. The engines continued to play on both fronts of the hotel, but the supply on the Cashel street side was miserably inadequate for the requirement of the case, and it was only on the two lower storeys that the hose could he at all effective. The upper part of the building burned freely, and at times there was some danger to the firemen and others as large sections of the wooden cornice and sign boards broke off and fell into the street, but no injury seems to have been sustained by any one.

While efforts were thus being made to confine the fire to the A 1 Hotel, the flames in the rear of the buildings in which the lire broke out communicated with the back premises of Messrs Lane, Heath and Co., and Pratt. By this time Mr Beath’s back premises were burning fiercely, threatening to communicate with those of Mr Sutherland. Fortunately this gentleman had an active body of men on the roof of his premises, and they worked gallantly—thus saving Ilia building and stopping the further spread of the fire in that direction. A line of hose was got up the right-of-way between Mr Sutherland’s and Mr Beath’s, and also on the roof of Mr Lane’s shop, and, although badly directed, the men worked gallantly. From this time the fire began to be got under, and by five o’clock it was evident that all danger of its spreading was over. The damage done by'tbe fire was very considerable, The buildings occupied, by

Scrimshaw, Eoberts, J. J. Parker, and the A 1 Hotel v ere completely destroyed, and the contents more or less burned. A quantity of the stock belonging to Scrimshaw and to Eoberts was removed ; but that in the A 1 was almost entirely destroyed. The shop of Lane, butcher, was also completely gutted. The following is an approximate list of the insurances :

Bcath’s ; on the buildings —New Zealand, £BOO ; South British, £4OO ; Standard, £250. Total, £1450. On Stock—London and Lancashire, £IOOO ; South British, £ISOO ; Standard, £SOO ; Transatlantic, £1500; Norwich Union, £250 ; New Zealand, £500; Northern £1000; National, £1000; Britannia, £1500; Hamburg and Bremen, £750; Q-eneral Insurance of Trieste, £750 ; Phoenix, £2OOO ; Victoria, £IOOO ; total, £13,250. A 1 Hotel —Buildings—Liverpool, London, and Globe, £I3OO ;"National, £I3OO ; total, £2600. Stock —Liverpool, London, and Globe, £150 ; National, £150; total, £3OO. Furniture—London, Liverpool and Globe, £4OO ; National, £400; total, £BOO, Fixtures—Liverpool, London, and Globe, £100; National, £100; total, £2OO. Grand total, £4IOO.

Roberts—Building, National, £100; stock, South British, £3OO ; total, £4OO.

Scrimshaw—Stock, Victoria, £2OO. Lane—Building, £3OO ; estimated loss, £IOO.

Pratt—Stock, in South British, £IOOO ; Standard, £SOO.