GREAT LONDON FIRE

Hokitika Guardian, 10 September 1928, Page 2

GREAT LONDON FIRE

IN TENEMENT AREA. Australian Press Assn.—United Service LONDON, Se.pt. 8. tine of the most disastrous fires in liondou for many years occurred at midnight at the large timber yards at Vauxhall. Within a few minutes a shoot of flame was endangering six five storey blocks of Hats, two of which speedily caught fire. They were in a row of tenements, together housing ono thousand persons, mostly women and children and elderly people. Policemen hastily aroused the occupants, who awoke, to see the awesomo spectaclo of the roaring flames sending up columns of sparks hundreds of feet. The whole neighbourhood was aglow. Residents rushed out in their night clothes, women carrying their children, and husbands carrying mattresses and blankets, some also throwing furniture out of the windows. Some flat dwellers reached a courtyard to find its six foot gates locked.: A crowd, surging to the entrances, made fruitless efforts to smash the gates. Finally disregarding the barbed wire surmounting the gates, they climbed up and jumped into the street, the women hauling over their babies to rescuers outside. Many took refuge in the neighbouring railway arches, while■ others huddled in the streets. There were numerous feats of bravery one daughter carrying her mother to safety, and others staying to assist invalids and two octogenarian bed-rid-den people. Meanwhile despite the efforts - of thirty engines and two hundred fire-' men who were unable to approach within one hundred yards, owing to the heat, the timber yard was Burnt out, hut the flames were prevented from spreading. Tile glare was seen all over London. Hundreds of motorists hurried to tile scene. West end sympathisers bought food at neighbouring coffee stalls, and distributed it to the children. Two hundred are at present homeless.