THE PARIS MARKETS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume I, Issue 38, 31 October 1868, Page 6

THE PARIS MARKETS.

One of the sights of, Paris is the Central or wholesale Markets — lies Salles Centrales — which are divided into sections for the sale of meat, fish, vegetables, &p: Some; time ago a fire broke out in that section devoted "to the sale of butter, cheese, .eggs, and poultry. Each merchant has a stall, divided off iron railing,; the precise counter-part of which exists underground, for the storage of goods. In subterranean galleries, an old woman, in examining eggs by candle light, set fire to some straw, and soon the place was in flames. The tons of butter melted, forming a river of fire ; poultry — living and dead — were roasted by hundreds; and some dogs, that were chained up, were reduced to cinders. The fire-brigade was quickly at wort, the fire-men clambering everywhere like monkeys, regardless of molten iron and calcined stones. An explosion is heard, a vault falls in, swallowing up five persons ; presently a fireman climbs up a rope, the flames following him ; when at the top of a sail, the rope snaps, and he is a carbonised mass in a few minutes — within thirty yards from the sight of thousands. Some 150 merchants have been ruined. Provisions to the extent of 300,000 frances have been destroyed, and double the amount repersents the damage to tha building. In addition to the wounded there are two deaths, but all the missing have notyet reported themselves.