A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

Patea Mail, Volume 1, Issue 13, 26 May 1875, Page 3

A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

The fire which destroyed the cottonmill of Haigh and sou, at Over, in Cheshire, was attended with most appalling results. One account of it says : —Of the noble building, which at font o’clock yesterday (Feb 8) was in a perfect state and contained hundreds of people busily at work, there now remains but a small portion of the outer walls and a confused heap of smouldering debris. The splendid machinery with which the factory was fitted is twisted by the great heap into most fantastic shapes. Up to the present some eight bodies have been recovered. Foon after the fire broke, out a. poor woman flung her child f-om a window of the sixth storey, and when picked up it was quite dead. Another child of the same woman dropped into a. water-tank and was saved. The mother then threw herself, and her head coming violently in contact with some brick-work, the skull was smashed and flic brains scattered on the by-standeis congregated near. Another woman was seen hanging by her feet in one of the window; the heart rending screams were soon silenced, for the poor creature was literally roasted, and the charred body fell when the window burned out. At 5 o’clock tins morning five other bodies wore found bv a fireman in a tower, burned to a cinder, and beyond identification. Others are missing, and it is supposed that their remains arc in an unexplored part of the ruins. Fax of the bodies He in the room of a neighbouring beerhouse, and present a most sickening spectacle. The other two are at a cottage close by. The loss is estimated at £150,000.