TORRENTS OF TEA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9118, 10 April 1908, Page 6

TORRENTS OF TEA.

CITY WAREHOUSE AS TEAPOT. ' A serious fire which broke out in ’ London on Friday, February 21st, at ■. the tea warehouse of Messrs Jones, Bridgman, & 00., Northumberland ■ alley, E.C., London, had two 1 curious results. The fire was i already blazing when the Fire ' Brigade arrived, and the water which was poured on it from twenty engines, becoming hot on contact - with the flames, converted the four-storey building into a gigantic teapot.

Vast quantities of tea flowed from ■ the building on two sides, thus 1 transforming the narrow, sloping , thoroughfares—Carlisle avenue and Northumberland alley—into rushing torrents of tea. The steam which burst from the upper storeys of the ! premises resembled that which . emerges from the family teapot when ' the lid is taken off, while the air was perfumed for a considerable : area.

The fire'.is believed to have origi- ; nated from a drying store in the . basement, and its spread upwards was accelerated by a lift shaft. t

Captain Hamilton, w T ho personally directed the work of the Fire ,‘i Brigade, was able to prevent the flame from spreading to adjoining premises, despite the existence of several unfavourable conditions. The windows of Messrs Jones, Bridgman’s premises looking on the little streets named are exception- - ally wide. They practically form the walls for a considerable distance.

Colonel Eos, who was in charge v of the London Salvage Corps, ' pointed out to a newspaper representative that this allowed flame of great volume to burst into the narrow alley on each side. This placed the surrounding property in greater , jeopardy than would have been the case had the windows been small.

The adjoining 'warehouse is occupied by Messrs Reynolds, Brundit, and Co., Ltd., cork and general merchants. It is estimated that about four thousand bales of cork were stored in this building, stopping up the windows on some of the floors. It was feared at first that there was little chance of saving a building full of such inflammable material. The flames from’the tea warehouse reached the back windows, some of which were burnt out, but there being, fortunately, an absence of wind, this second outbreak was soon, checked.