GREAT FIRE IN BRISBANE. IMMENSE DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. Brisbane, October 2.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 305, 6 October 1888, Page 4

GREAT FIRE IN BRISBANE. IMMENSE DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. Brisbane, October 2.

A fire broke out in Messrs D. L. Brown and Co.'s warehouse, Eaglo-streob, at about half-past 4 in the morning. The building was gutted, and the contents were destroyed, as also was Messrs Barker and (jo.'s store, adjoining, and Messrs Parbury, Lamb, and Co.'s premises were also injured. The losses are very heavy, and the insurances correspondingly large. Of the companies represented here, oho Queen Insurance Company has probably been affected the most, Messrs D. L. Brown and Co., Barker and Co., and Parbury, Lamb, and Co. being covered in this oilice to the amount of £16,000. The following is a list of the insurances on the stock in Messrs D. L. Brown and Co.'s main buildings. — Northern Insurance Cumpany, £4,000 ; Norwich Union, £4,000 ; Standard, New Zealand, £2,500 ; Liverpool, London, and Globe, £1,500; Australian Alliance, £1,000 ; South British, New Zealand, £2,000 ; Now Zealand, £4,000 ; Lion, £2,000; North British and Mercantile, £4,000; Equitable, Now South Wales, £1,000 ; Colonial, New Zealand, £2,000 ; Guardian, £5,000 ; Phoenix, £3,500 ; Colonial Mutual £2,000; New South Wales, £2,500 ; Alliance London, £6,000 ; Commercial Union, £7,500 ; Glasgow and London, C1.500 ; Lloyd's, £18,400 ; Atlas, £2,000 ; London and Lancashire, £5,000 ; Imperial," £6,000 ; Queen, £5,000; Royal, £5,000; National of New Zealand, £2,500 ; Cornwall, £2,000 ; Fire Marino and Accident Indemnity, £1,000 ; United Insurance Company, £1,500 ; making a total of £101,400. The total insurance on the whole of Messrs D. L. Brown and Co.'s stock amounts to about £118,400. The following are the insurances on Messrs D. L. JBrown and Co.'s buildings : — Liverpool," London, and Globe, £3,500; Queen, £4,000; Victorian, £1,000 ; London Alliance, £5,000 ; Norwich Union, £1,000; Guardian, £4,000; total, £19,500. The insurances on Messrs Barker and Co.'s stock as far as at present known are as follows : — New Zealand, £3,000 ; Norwich Union, £3,000 ; Commercial Union, £3,000 ; South British, £1,000 : Royal, £1,000; Queen, £3,000; Imperial, £1,500; National, £1,500; Colonial Mutual, £1,000; Victoria, £1,000; Queen, £1,000; total, £20,000. The damage done by the fire is now estimated approximately at £250,000, as follows : — Messrs D. L. Brown and Co.'s stock £165,000, buildings £40,000; Messrs Barker and Co.'s stock £30,000 ; the adjacent premises and stock of Messrs Parbury, Lamb, and Co. and the Apollo Candle Company about £15,000. The fire would in all pro bability have been extinguished at an early stage had the appliances with which the building was well provided been in working order. Two men, one of them being a night ovei'seer at the office of the Brisbane "Courier,' who were going home from work, besides a watchman, were on the scene directly after the fire broke out, but they were unable to use the hydrant, owing bo the impossibility of removing the case of the fireplug, and by the time the fire brigade arrived the flames had got too firm a hold to be extinguished. It was only by the most strenuous efforts of the brigade that the adjacent buildings were saved from destruction. Otherwise, the loss would have been enormously greater. Messrs D. L, Brown and Co.'s warehouse was a brick and cement building with a frontage of 123ft, a depth of 194it, and a height of 70ft. The fire at Brisbane is remarkable as having been the most largely destructive which has yet occurred in any of the cities of Australia. These colonies, indeed, have been singularly free from conflagrations of very large dimensions. Except the tire at the Exhibition Building, not more than one, as far as we remember, has destroyed property of value exceeding £100,000. That was in Melbourne. In this colony the large wholesale warehouses of Messrs John Frazer and Co. and their contents, burnt over tvventy years ago, were valued at something like £60,000 to £70,000 ; and the destruction of the five warehouses of Messrs IX Cohen and Co. and adjoining premises in Maitland cost the insurance companies a like amount. But the lohs involved in the fire at Brisbane is estimated at£25i»,000; the insurance amounts to £160,000. Therefore this is by far the most destructive fire of which we have any record in Australia.

MEETING OF INSURANCE COMPANIES' REPRESENTATIVES. Colonel Freeman, Chief Adjuster of Fire Insurance Claims for the Southern Colonies, who is now in Brisbane for the purpose of adjusting the claims in connection with the lire at Messrs D. L. Brown and Co. 's, was present at a meeting of the representatives of the various insurance companies, at which explanations were given that convinced him that there was no doubt asto the fire beingpurely accidental, and that no objection need be raised as fco bhe payment of claims. The fire isbhelargesb thathas yet had to be dealt with in Australia, companies never having suffered so s'reab a loss from a single fire. The experience of companies, so far as Queensland is concerned, is that they have been subjected to losses bordering on a quarter of a million over and above the amount of premiums paid. This is partly owing, 'in Colonel Freeman's opinion, to the fact bhab premiums have been brought by sevete competition to unduly low rates, being, lowtr here than I in the southern colonies. The result will probably be the imposition of higher rates if a \xnitorm tariff can be agreed on, Colonel Freeman considers the pre&enb supply of water in case of fire inadequate, and Had the rivbr supply nob been So easily, ; attainable, the results" to adjoining pro"pe]cties musi have^been far more serious.