GREAT FIRE IN SYDNEY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3629, 3 October 1890, Page 2

GREAT FIRE IN SYDNEY.

A WHOLE BLOCK DESTEOYED "i'i ;ENORMOUS DAMAGE, ' '• - .Syj>.\ky, Ootober 2. T|io,' most destructive fivo which iias ever, occurred in Sydney began al 2. o'clock this' morning in Gibbs, Shallard and- Co.'a printing warehouse. ' ■

Tho building is situated in a dense block of' premises, bounded by Pitt, Castlereagh, King, and Hunter streets, containing some of tho finest and most-.massively'built warehouses arid business premises in tho city, The buildings are" all of stone and brick, irid' three to five stories in height. . ■ ,

Tho flarees' spread with alarmibg rapidity, and, tho Southern Ulub and feldheim, (jottbeuf .& : .Oo's 'largo warehouse were soon a seething mass of flames,. ■ :Wi)'en'these bmltlings had fairly caught, ' the conflagration assumed such dimensions-, that for- the time tho brigades wore entirely overpowered, and thcro seemed littlo piospect of preventing the destruction of tho whole block, '..

Ono of tlie Club' walls fell, injuring several firemen, and; tho wind. began to increase, giving further play to tho Games. ::!V

s. Lark and Son's big dry goods establishment was next euveloped, and tho fire quickly raged through it from top to bottom. ; '

At this time the, wall of Gibbs, Shallard's place fell, injuring another fireman, ' . ;' ' .

1 jTlie wind then changed,'and drove 'the-Ilames in the'opposite direction ijpoi) thg lqrgo edifices in -Pittstreet

Bull and Co's four-story soft good warehouso caught,, together with Ejcliai'dson and, Wrench's. Unfortunately the fall was again attended with injury to tlio firemen, three ol whom were badly hurt; and only'with great difficulty' rescued from the 'dvalanchc of-beams and stones,

J' Park and machinery store in 01nronce : street (running through tho block), and Lnwsoii & Sons' huge furniture warehouse, on the Pitt-street frontage of the blocjf were the next to g°' At tlid uack'of tho latter, fronting on Castjei'pagh-streot, a short distanca below tho '"Theatre - Royal is the Athcntounj|dliib, a fine building only some'three years ago. This also was,burnt out.

; Twenty-five brigades wore ongaged and a' largo force of tho Permanent Militia kept the streets clear.

It is impossible at present to estimate tho damage or-give the number of biiiklings:.;destroyed, but tho loss will be onorihoiii, The value of the buildings alone, irrespective of tho contents, vjlll probably amount to hundreds of thousands."

The liro raged for lour jpirs boforo it VrHS got under