BIG FIRE IN LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 271, 22 December 1909, Page 2

BIG FIRE IN LONDON.

COMMENCES IN GREAT DRAPERY STORES. 40 SHOPS AND HOUSES DESTROYED SEVERAL LIVES LOST. DAMAGE OVER A MILLION. By Gable.—Press Association.—Copyright

London, December 20.

A fire at Messrs Arding and Hobbs' drapery stores, at Clapham, caused a panic amongst hundreds of employe's who wero either dressing windows fur Christmas or who were busy upstairs. Many persons jumped from the windows, and liremen rescued scores of others. The building was gutted.

Thirty employees were taken to ill.' hospital Several others perished. The dome of the building fell, setting tire to provision stores. Several other houses and shops were destroyed. THE CAUSE OF THE FIRE. THE BUILDINGS A FURNACE IN lo MINUTES.

HEROIC WORK BY JOHN BURNS.

Received 22, 0.15 a.m. London, December 21.

Messrs Arding and Hobbs' hnndsome block of buildings, which were gutted, contained 50 departments and employed 600 assistants.

The fire was due to an assistant breaking an eleclrie lamp in getting a comb from a window filled with celluloid articles.

The place was soon a blazing mass, the public and assistants screaming ami struggling to escape. In ten minutes the shop was a furnace.

Further rescue work has been abandoned.

Four were killed through leaping from the upper floors. The flames were a splendid spectacle. The copper ornamental tower collapsed and fired a store on the opposite side of the road.

A draper's and u drug store wcc also in flames. Mr; John Burns (President of the Local Government Board), whose house is within 100 yards, organised a parly n tear down the Venetian masts and' fctoons of flowers erected in the (streets connected with the Christmas shopping which were carrying the (lames across the street.

He also nrcnnfced unnflu of soHie-o and sailors tn assist the firemen. Mr. Burns worked with a sack ov r his head in which he had cut cye-hol>s. His li'inde were badly blistered." Mr. Shirlev Kenn, a Unionist candidate for Bnttersca, also assisted.

Forty shops and houses were destro ed, and the damage is possibly a mil lion.

It is impossible to ascertain the dentbs until the ruins arc searched and tile roll of Messrs Arding and Hobbs' employees is called.