GREAT FIRE AT BRISTOL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2773, 11 February 1882, Page 3

GREAT FIRE AT BRISTOL.

The fire which broke out in the oil storing warehouses and cellars of Mr Benjamin Perry, the carrier at Bristol,on November 30, reached during the night 3000 barrels of petroleum, mostly stored in the extensive range of cellars beneath the burning warehouses. As these barrels burst the oil reached the public drains, ’ which were on fire for nearly half a mile from the scene of the outbreak,,' the flames issuing from the gratings of the channel courses. In one instance a man j whose clothes had got saturated with petroleum; while he was siding the firemen, stood unwittingly near a gratibg in the gutter, and the flames from' the oil in the drain suddenly igniting his clothes, he would have been sadly burnt but for one of the firemen, turning on the hose, and nearly drownipg him with water. The fire in the buitidings burnl all day oh December 1, and all. the 3000 barrels of oil were sacrificed. Some workmen reached 845 barrels of oil from an adjoining ware; house, and, while removing them the men had to cover in the drains with clay, in order to prevent any, fire getting to the oil as it was being carried past the opening. The windows of the adjoining premises had also to be stopped up with clay, so fierce were the flames. After the walls of the warehouse were razed to the ground, the fire continued to burn fiercely in the cellars. With the utmost difficulty the fire brigade prevented the flames from extending to valuable stores adjoining. In one cellar ten tons of ledgers and books of the late West of England Bank, and now the property of the official liquidators, were destroyed. They were insured. At a late hour on the night of December 1 the fire, was still burning, and the ■treats around wore blocked with fallen masonry.