GREAT FIRE IN TAY STREET.

Southland Times, 2 March 1864, Page 2

GREAT FIRE IN TAY STREET.

DESTRUCTION OF ABOUT LIS,QOQ WORTH OF PROPERTY. ' v LOSS OFTWO OTES. : .-' : /■■; ■ ;:i ; The calamity, wluch-yre-have long feared, which! we haveso often referred to as likely to occur, has at length taken place. : The breaking out of fire in a block of wooden buildings has caused the destruction of property, estimated at the value of about L 15 ,000, arid saddest of all to relate, resulted in the loss of two lives. In one short half hour six large buildings, compris.ing two' hotels, a large concert banking establishment, two shops, and the printing of. the Times, have been levelled to the /ground before there was barely time to save a dray load of property. ' ■"■ "" ,;■■• Under the circumstances of excitement which took place during,. and after such an awful disaster, it is, barely possible, to obtain any accurate information as to the origin and progress of such a fire ; but the following naration of the occurrence is as near as possible correct. The lire originated in the Excelsior Hotel, Tay-street — the commencement of the block,/ nearly adjoining Mueller 4 & Geisow's Aixction 'room's,', and communicating with the_office of the. Times next door, thence spread across the narrow right-of-way separating the Times office from .Spencer and Co.'s Kerosene and Lamp Store, and Neustadt tobacconists ; from the latter to the Criterion Hotel and Concert Hall, ; and thence to the Union Bank premises before its progress was arrested. It appears that between 12 and 1 o'clock on Monday night, Mrs Hall, the wife of the landlord of the Excelsior Hotel, retired tobed ; the barmaid going to bed also at the same time. At that time Mr Hall and a few friends were sitting up in the front parlour, over the bar, playing at cards, which they continued until between 2 and 3 o'clock, when they all left the hotel' with the exception of a friend ol Mr Hall's, Mr Qninten, who, the hour, being late, laid down on the sofa in the parlour until morning. Mr Hall, who then retired to bed, states that shortly before six o'clock he awoke, and almost immediately afterwards fell off to sleep, when the next thing he recollects was being awoke by the barmaid — who slept in a bedroom on the other side^of the passage — calling out that the place was'on fire. Mr Hall jumped out of bed and, almost suffocated by the smoke, called on his wife and the girl to follow him. He is unable to state accurately how he got out of the burning house ; but some of the few persons, whom the alarm of five had by this time drawn to fche spot, state that he'scrarabled— almost threw himself from the window of the front parlour on to the pavement below, receiving severe bruises in addition to the burns he received by the fire above.' At this time the flames appeared to be fiercest- in" the bowling saloon, which extended from the rear of the hotel, and also in the back part of the premises of the hotel itself. Although the persons in the street were informed of the perilous situation of Mrs Hall and the bar-maid, it was found perfectly impossible to adopt any means to save them. Mr Quinteii, who was only awoke 1 in the front room by Mr Hall rushing past him in coming to the open window, was cried to by Mr Hall to try to save his wife : but although he made an attempt to get near her bedroom, the great body of flames and smoke drove him back, and he had hardly time to get out of the parlour window, and drop into the street. Although it was barely five minutes from the time that Mr Hall was aroused, the whole of the premises of the hotel and bowling saloon were in ilames, and . the high wind blowing from the south-westcaused the fire to communicate with the adjoining premises of the Times office, which appeared to be ignited from every portion of the adjoining burning building, the front premises of the Times office and the printing offices attached, running backwards in a parallel direction, and immediately alongside the hotel and bowlingsaloon. Before ten minutes, or at most a quarter of an hour had elapsed, the two buildings referred to were in names, which being blown across the narrow right of way to the adjoining kerosene store, the inflammable stock in the latter was set fne to, and as the flames communicated with the tins of kerosene, they burst into fii-e with a loud explosion. The rapidity with which the fir'o now spread to the shop and premises of Mr Neustadt, under the same roof of Spencer and Co., is almost incredible. The kerosene-fed flames phot out from the front and back of the premises, leaving the occupants barely tune to escape with their lives. The latter circumstance is a strong proof of the rapidity of the fire, which originating in the hotel, two doors from Mr Newstadt's, hardly gave the occupants time to escape with their lives, before the house was in flames. The fire next communicated with the Criterion Hotel and Concert Hall, which were both speedily in flames, the rapidity with which they were driven from house to house by the high and fierce wind, appearing to paralyse the bystanders, although no attempt to save Lhe contents of any of the houses, could have been attended with any success— indeed could only, perhaps, have resulted in loss of life. The close contiguity of the large premises occupied by the Union ftpank made it apparent that they would also soon be on lire, and exertions were made to save some of the contents. Accoi-dingly men were employed in removing, some of the furniture, and such effects as were portable and could be got at easily. Hardly was there time to remove some portion before the r "flames from the Criterion. Hotel caught the corner of the bank premises, and in a few moments the large wooden building was a body of flames. The sight of the fire at this time, was horrifying.- So rapid /was the spread of the fire that when the Union Bank was burning at its fiercest height, the flames from the Excelsior Hotelwere still considerably high; the. whole of the block, with the adjoining bank premises were on fire together, the heat from the flames actually scorching the paint on the premises on the opposite side of the street, and in some instances breaking the glass windows in the shops at the other side of the street, about two chains wide. The sight was the more horrifying to those who beheld it, from the knowledge that -two human beings were at the moy ment suffering, or had but. just expired by one of the most horrible of deaths. ....-■'■ j . ' Shortly after the fire broke outtlie Volunteer Fire , Brigade were on the spot with their new hook and ladder apparatus, and afterwards a fire engine was brought to -the- spot. ;A great deficiency of water rendered the engine, however, of little or no service. The services of the Brigade /there-: . fore,, combined with many other equally willing hands from the crowd, were put "into requisition in order to prevent the fire communicating from the bank to the premises occupied by Mr Rose, the bookseller, the propable result of such an occur-, rence 1 appearing to all that the whole of the block' of buildings of whicli Mr Hose's is -the eommeiice,ment and terminating with the Provincial Hotel, would have been destroyed.. Under those , circum- ; stances, /..orders were given fco pull ckrwn Mrßoses' premises, and' this work was actually commenced, the whole of the front part in the shop having been /taken' out, when either, by a^providential lull of the wind, or that the large intervening space and; j iron - "hoarding. between the buildings ren-' dered the demolition of Mr Roses' pi'emises unne-

cessary, as the:' fire 'stayed its progress with/ .'the^es'^; truction of the bank. The wind howeverjearried-; heavy flakes of. fire on to the^roof /of. .Mr^Qses'i premises, and to; that of Mr dttsy tji'e iailors, 'ad-'i joining, and; had it hot fceen for the active services of the Brigade arid others witft buckets and: water, they would have taken "-fire;-.;, as it /was . the burning wood deposited "on the > roofs ■: edminu- , cated with the calico lining under the ceiling, which in many places |was perforated by large holes by the falling pieces of fire. So narrow an escape had many ..of the adjoining premises from being set fire to, that we may state the wind carried pieces of burning wood and deposited ,them on the roofs of, houses nearly^as fa-cup* 1 Tay-street asthe Union Hotel," arid it' was only by"] caroful watching by their' occupants that they were prevented, catching fire.. The fierce rapidity of the fire may be judged of by the simple relation of the fact that it first broke out about half -past "6 o'clock,"" and by a few minutes after 1 ? o'clock the whole of the premises enumerated were represented by heaps' of smoking ruins. /, ■; v /.' / . v/ >v: .- / Barely was time allowed for the ruins to become cool before search was made for the remains of the i two poor women— Mrs Hall? arid the barmaid,', Eliz- ] beth Jamieson— which' were at last found underneath ; . a heap of charred timber and bricks. -Kre; had altered the bodies from any semblance of 'the human ! form, and" the only thing apparent was presented- by two masses of a charcoal-like substance, -in shaped something like human bodies. , From. < the posif tion of the" remains of /the ' aria's "of one of the bodies, as they were both discovered lying together, it appeared probable that one had. run. to [the other for " protection, and they had perished jin each ~- others arms. The remains* were re-' I moved to the Royal Hotel, where they await an inquest. Mr Hall, whose mental state maybe easily imagined, had to be removed to the Hospital. By the flames he has been- badly burned about the hands, arras, back of the neck, and face, and has besides received several contusions in dropping.from the window.' ! In tlie course of yesterday, one of the j iron safe was removed from- the- ruins of the Union Bank, and also a second safe from the brick, strongroom which was on the premises. Both" of the safes, which appeared to be uninjured by action of the ! fire, contained, it is stated, a large.amount in gold I and bullion, besides the books and other 1 Valuable t documents of the bank.. We have been since mii formed that, with the exception of the loss of the | premises, this- bank has sufFered no other actual 1 loss. '.:■'■■'■■:;■. ■' ".•■;;•'■. . ■ j At the present moment, it would be injudicious to refer.to any of/the ; many rumours which are current as to the origin of the fife, as there will in all probability be an officialand authorised enquiry into the matter. We may mention, however, 'that Mr | Hall states that he saw all the fires-and lights put ; out. before 1 " he retired to bed! -. ; The , ; most;;feasible supposition would be that the nre^first originated in ; | the bowling-saloon attached tatherear of the hotel,;/ | and had been smouldering from the previous nigh t> land most probably Vas caused by the end of a lighted cigar, or ashes frqrii a pipe, carelessly thrown near the inflammable materials of which it was con-, structed. .-,- -

We have no official, information. at present as to the actual amount of property destroyed, nor the amount covered by insurance. The following, however, will be near the amounts: — Excelsior Hotel ,' insured for L 509, loss about L 1000; Times office, insured for LIOOO, loss L7OOO ; Spencer; and; Company, uninsured, loss about LI .500 ; Neustadt; in-' sureel for L4OO, loss about LSOO ; Criterion Hotel' and Concert-Hall, insurance not known, loss iujout L 2500': Union Bank, insured for L3OOO, loss estimated about L4OOO ; Rose, loss by water and re- r moval of goods, unknown ; Ott, loss, by water 1 arid removal of goods, unknown.

We may add that although a considerable .quantity of valuables, especially from the Union Bank, had to Le deposited in the streets, yet, thanks to the watchfulness of the police, no-loss by theft- has :been reported. Indeed, not only to the police but to men of all classes and grades in the community,; thanks, are due for the manner in which they exerted themselves. In some instances, perhaps, over zealousness was more injurious than inactivity ; 'but this will occur at any calamity of the kind.