A VILLAGE DESTROYED BY FIRE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1938, 11 May 1880, Page 3

A VILLAGE DESTROYED BY FIRE.

A Genova correspondent writes under date February 24th :—“ The fire by which Riein, a village in theOberland of the Orisons, was destroyed on the night of Tuesday last, broke out in the house of Herr Christoffel, the District Judge, after the family had retired to rest. When the alarm was given the staircase was in flames, and all chances of escape, except by the upper windows, was cut off. Her Christoffel lot himself drop to the ground, a distance of from 20ft. to 30ft.; the other inmates of the house did the same, and though several of them were badly bruised in the fall, none were seriously hurt. As a strong south wind was blowing at tho time, and the village is built entirely of wood, the flames ran from house to house with frightful rapidity. As the fire-engine house was one of the first to take fire and the principal fountain was close to a burning building, the heat from which rendered it unapproachable, no attempt could be made to combat the conflagration. All that the poor people could do was to hurry, half-dressed, from their houses, release their cattle, and then helplessly watch the destruction of their homes. The church, the school-house, the post-office, and the building containing the communal archives and the winter provision for the poor, have all fallen a prey to the flames ; seventy buildings were destroyed, and only eight houses and eleven barns are left standing. The village is ruined, for very few of the inhabitants seem to have been insured, and though help has been freely offered, it is impossible for the moment to attempt to rebuild it. Biein not being accessible to carts, and as the roads are at present turned into glaciers they are not even practicable for mules. Meanwhile the houseless inhabitants have received shelter in the neighboring villages, and subscriptions on their behalf are being opened throughout Switzerland.”