HUGE SYDNEY FIRE

Shannon News, 7 April 1926, Page 1

HUGE SYDNEY FIRE

LARGE WAREHOUSE BURNED. LOSS ESTIMATED AT £130,000. One of the most spectacular and disastrous fires tliat have occurred in Sydney for years destroyed the head store and offices of M’llraths, Ltd., provision merchants at the corner of Pitt and Goulburn streets, on the night of March 9. Hugo flames tinted gold and orange, shot 100 ft into the air ,and the fire had been burning fiercely for over two hours before the thousands of gallons of water poured into the ...ferno showed any effect. Two firemen were injured while attending to one of the, man hoses, and were taken to the hospital suffering from injuries to the legs and shock. Dozens of women who had become wedged in the dense crowd that had rushed to the spot fainted with the heat, and had to be carried away and resuscitated. Th e destruction of . the building, consisting of six storeys, and its valuable contents was so complete that the damage was estimated at £130,000. ‘ ' As the premises were in one of Sydney’s “danger zones,” eight fire brigades were ordered to the spot. The flames had apparently comnienced in the first floor or basement of the building on the Goulburn street frontage, and with almost incredible speed tongues of fire ate through to the roof, story by stofy. arid, fanned by a fairly strong breeze, swept thropgh to the Pitt street frontage. Window glass, charred timber, bricks ' and debris, dislodged by the frequent explosions inside the tall building, showered on to’ the streets in the sur- < rounding block. ■ Crowd of 50,000 People. x Within a quarter of an hour of the lirst alarm of fire huge volumes of flame were > shooting skyward, illuminating the "rolling bank of white smoke. Thousands of people hurried to the fire, and a crowd, estimated at over 50,000, blocked the environs. A strong force of police, hurriedly called on duty, had a difficult task to prevent the more intrepid sightseers from endangering their lives.- The police at one stage threatened to arrest those who did not keep clear of the cordon they had drawn. This warning had the desired effect, sjnd no further difficulty was experienced. The fall of the roof of the building across the People’s Palace caused extensive damage. It wrecked the interior of the northern wing of the building, and the walls, furniture, and fittings in twenty-five rooms were' de- > stroyed. Two small shops standing between the two larger buildings were also destroyed, together with their contents. Dense smoke still issued from the debris throughout the two following days. Thousands of gallons of water were pumped from the basement by the firemen. Preparations were being made for the demolishing, of the large wall fronting Pitt street .which had assumed an extremely dangerous list outwards, but th c work in this direction was hampered b ythe heat and smoke coming from the debris 4 below. A List of Three Feet. It was explained that -the wall ax first assumed a list of 3ft at the top, but, ov\kng to the cooling of the bricks it had slightly retracted, and (he list was reduced to 2i’t. The work of demolishing the wall is being carried out by the builder or the premises. It was explained that the work would be very difficult owing to the grave risk of the collapse of the wall. It was proposed to use pullers and make the top of the wall fall inwards. On March 11, workmen were seen on the large safety extension ladder owned by the fire brigade placing slings around several piers at the top of the Pitt street wall. Large crowds watched the operations behind the police barriers, and marvelled at the daring of the workmen.