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.. - - -DREADFUL CONFLAGRATION.

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DREADFUL CONFLAGRATION. The metropolis on Saturday evening was visited bv one of the most terrific ccirita-rttions that has probably oc- curred since the great fire of London. Certainly for the amount of property destroyed, nothing like it has been experienced during the past half-century. the loss being mo- derately < ^timated at more than half a million. The scene of the catastrophe was on the waterside por- tion of Tooley-strect. nearest London-bridge, a locality which has been singularly unfortunate during the last 2-5 years, "OIUC of the largest fires having occurred there. The outbreak took place in the extensive range of premises known as Cotton's wharf and the bonded warehouses be- longing to Messrs. Scovell. They had an extensive river frontage, and the whole space on the land side extending to Tooley-street was coveted with eight or nine warehouses six stories in^Jieiijht, some of which had formerly been used as Ordnance stores, and the whole occupying, as we were informed, about three acres. These buildings were filled with valuable merchandise of every description. There were some thousands of chests of tea and bales of silk stored in the upper floors, while in the lower was an im- mense stock of Russian tallow and tar, oils, bales of cotton, hops, and grain. Every portion of the establish- ment may be said t3 have been loaded with goods, and of the whole property not a vestige remains but the bare walls aud an immense chasm of fire, which at dusk on Sunday evening still lighted up the Pool and the east end of the city. To be added to this very serious loss is the destruc- tion of the whola of the western range of Alderman Humphery's warehouses flanking the new dock, known as Hay's wharf, the burning of four warehouses and a quay, comprising Chamberlains-wharf, adjacent to St. Olave's Church, besides many other buildings in Tooley-street. The oddest IOi?- of all, however, w:n the deplorable acci- dent which befell Mr. James Braidwood, the director of the London Fire Brigade, who, it will be seen by the sub- joined details, perished at an early stage of the fire. The first intelligence of the outbreak of the fire reached the head-quarters of the Brigade in Watling-treet at 10 minutes to 5 o'clock, and all the available force and engines belonging to the establishment were at once despatched to the spot. On arriving at the western avenue in Tooley- street, leading to Cotton's wharf, a dense body of smoke was observed issuing from the loophole doors, or the first story of one of the centre bonded warehouses abutting on the wharf, and in a line with other warehouses stretching to Tooley-street. This centre building had only been recently erected, and its construction gave rue to some dispute between the insurance company and Messrs. Scovell, which, we are informed, had only been arranged a few days since. On inquiry it was elicited from the foreman of the wharf that the business of the day was about to be closed when an alarm was raised that smoke was issuing from the hemp and jute stowed on tho first floor. Several of the labourers entered the place with buckets full of water in the hope of extinguishing the fire, but the smoke was so dense and suffocating that they were compelled to retreat. One man crawled upon his hands and knees, and succeeded in getting a view of the seat of the fire, which, it is stated, was confined to a very small space, and which, probably, tha j man could readily have suppressed had not the smoke nearly stifled him and compelled him to retire. On the arrival of the brigade their attention was drawn to smoke also coming out of the windows of the warehouses which adjoined. This fact excited some surprise, as it was known that strong party-walls divided the buildings, and it was then ascertained j that the workpeople had made the fatal neglect of not clos- ing the iron doors which communicated with the several floors throughout the range. Mr. Braidwood at once pre- dicted that the fire would become one of great magnitude. Although no Same could be seen, the smoke was becoming denser and denser, rendering any approach to the floors quite impracticable. The chief of the brigade at ouco pro- ceeded to station his force in the best available positions to coinbit with the conflagration. The two powerful steam floating, engines were brought off the wharf, and two lengths of hose were fixed to each of them, and led on to the quay, and brought to bear on both sides of the building on fire. A large number of land engines had taken up a position in Tooley-street and were prepared for action, but, the firemen being unable to obtain a supply of water from the mains, most of them stood idle for quite an hour before water was obtainable from the plugs. At nearly all the large Sres which have occurred in this locality there has been the same inadequate supply of water, and to which may be attributed, in some degree, the extent to which those conflagrations reached. As soon as it was perceived that the waterside range was threatened, the vessels which were lying at the wharf a'M which were not aground were hauled out into the stream. Shortly before 6 o'clock the fire began bursting forth with awful fury, and the whole of the main building from the basement to the roof became enveloped in fire. The flames then made rapid work of it, and progressed towards the line of warehouses facing the river and to the lofty buildings which adjoined on the Tooley-street side. Mr. Braidwood surveyed the course of the fire with his usual coolness, and posted his men whero the best command could be had over the fire. About half- past 7 o'clock he entered the gateway leading to the wharf nearest St. Oiavc's Church, and proceeded down the, avenue, where .four of his men were supporting and direct- ing two branches from the floating engine. By this time the warehouse in which the fire commenced was gutted, but the enormous stock of tallow which had been stowed in the lower floors caused the flames to rise to a consider- able height, and, if anything, they raged more furiously when water was scattered over them. The adjacent build. ings also contained a large quantity of tallow and oil, which ran down through the loopholes in a stream to the vaults as the warehouses ignited. At intervals there were loud reports, as if from the explosion of combustibles, but at the time thi3 did not excite any particular alarm, as the fore- man of the wharf had assured the firemen that those. ware- houses contained no explosive material, though he admitted that there was a large stock of saltpetre in another part of the wharf. The police, who by this time, had got command of the thoroughfares leading to the wharf, had cleared this western gateway or avenue, and with the exception of the firemen there were only a few persons standing by. Mr. Braidwood, who had visited the men several times pre- j viously, seeing their distressed state, was engaged in giving them some refreshment when, all of a sudden, a terrific explosion occurred. In an instant it was seen that the whole of the frontage of the second warehouse was coming down, falling outwards into the avenue. Mr. Henderson, the foreman of the Southern district of the brigade, who j was standing within a few paces of Mr. Braidwood, shouted for all to run. The men dropped their branches Two, with Mr. Henderson, escaped by the front gateway, and the others ran in the opposite direction on to the wharf, where they jumped into the river. Mr. Braidwood made an effort to follow Mr. Henderson, but was struck down by the upper part of the wall, and buried beneath some tons of brickwork. His death must have been instantaneous. Several of his men rushed to extricate him, hopeless as the task was, but, another explosion happening, they were compelled to fly. The sad fate of their chief had a most depressing effect upon all, and, to add to their trouble, the conflagration now assumed a most awful ascendancy. It was said that there were three men standing by at the time, and it was feared that they htd perished. We are in a position, however, to state that Mr. Braidwood is the only member of the fire brigade who has fallen, all the men havin, answered to the roll. A gentleman named Scott, however, is supposed to have perished with him. The exertions of the brigade were quite powerless to check the progress of the flames. It is scarcely possible to describe the consternation which prevailed. From the rapid explo- sions which followed it was thought that there must have been a large stock of saltpetre in every one of the ware- houses. The concussions shook the neighbourhood, and scattered clouds of .the burning fragments over the panic- stricken district. Although the sun had not set, and the evening was bright and elear, the whole of the public build- ings in the city and along the waterside were tinged by the lurid glare of the conflagration, while the Pool and eastern part of the metropolis were darkened by the huge cloud of smoke which rose from the burning mass. By this period the news of the magnitude of the fire had spread all over the metropolis, and the number of people flocking to it was so great as to render London-bridge and the Borough quite impassable. The balustrades and outside coping of Lon- don-bridge were fringed with thousands of spectators, and we heard of one instance were a person in his struggle to obtain a p!ace had fallen over into the river and was drowned. At about 10 o'clock the fire seemed at its worst. Probably I between S and 9 there was a greater body of flame than at any subsequent period, but the broad light of a summer's evening drowned its hideous glare. It was not till night fell that the tremendous terrors of the spectacle could be appre- ciated in all their horrid grandeur. Never since the Fire of 16Gfj had such a 3oenc been witnessed. The whole south bank of the river from London-bridge to below the Custom- house seemed one stupendous pile of fire, plowing at its core with an intensity that made it painful to look at, and cast- ing a tuddy glare above on everything far and near. At this time the only hope of the firemen lay in the night still continuing calm. Their efforts to check the flames they felt and knew were utterly hopeless. All the engines of London and an that could be brought by uil or road from the suburbs were as useless as children's squirts against these acres of burning ruins. The efforts of the most powerful engines could only sprinkle at rare intervals the outskirts of the buildings, for the heat was so great that none could approach near and live. All the worst masses of flame were thus quite out of reach, though, so great was the bulk of the glowing ruins, that, even had they been under* command, no water-power the firemen could procure could have made the slightest impivssion. The only chauce, therefore, of a cessation of the calamity rested entirely on the night remaining still, and allowing the ruins to burn out of themselves. By the mercy of Providence, happily, no wind arose. Had it been other- wise the blasts ot heated air coming through such a mass of fire would have lit everything within half-a-mile of it. Engines and firemen would have been alike driven away, and the whole neighbourhood would have been abandoned to the flames till a sufficient number of houses on its dread- ful line of march could have been either pu!led down or blown up. At one time such au extension of the catas- trophe seemed awfully probable. There was scarcely a breath of wind, but what little there was came from the river, xently turning the blinding mass of smoke and flame across rooley-street to the London-bridge Railway Station. On it seemed to conae, nearer and nearer, with a crackling roar that was terrible, with its millions of burning flakes filling the air aa if the very atmosphere was on fire, and the great ran k s of red flame flapping about their keen thin points with a dull noise, and leaping up high over the houses with bounds and spurts like fountains of fire. The heat in the station became very great, and the ground- glass windows at tue side could icarccly be touched. Im- mediately between the station and the fire was a large timber- yard, with some houses almost jutting into it. If these houses caught, the timber-yard and station were certain to follow, and the Amies, thus spreading in two directions, might travel over all Southwark. Upon these houses, therefore, the firemen concentrated all their efforts, and from the tops i of eminences and piles of timber poured streams of water on the walls and roofs. Gradually, however, in spite of all checks, the walls began to steam, as if the houses were boilinti, and little ominous curls of smoke wound through the slat roofs. Then more smoke, and the water hissed and sputtered on the roofs, and a dull increasing glow shone from all the windows, as if there were lights inside each room, and the panes were filled-in with red glass. More hoses were turued upon the roofs and walls, but all in vain. The smoke came thicker from the roofs, the light shone brighter from the rows of windows, and as the wind moved in settle puffs a flicker as of little gas jeti came darting up between the slates, and ran quivering along like an illumi- nation struggling with a high wind. At last the slates began to crank and crumble down, and the miss of flimes pnured out with a dull whirring noise, mounting high into the air. A few minutes of fierce tremendous blazing, during which the remaining Blates crumbled and dropped noiselessly down, and all chance of saving the building was abandoned. For a time the roofs hold up, but at last, as if melting, they bend slowly, and disappear in an awful explosion of sparks. At about this time (11 o clock) the station seems doomed. None can see how the fire is racing, so dense is the mass of smoke and sparks that sweep towards the railway. The engines are withdrawn from their useless contest with the burning houses near the timber yard, and begin to play upon the stacks of timber themselves The clouds of stoaro that rise from thesj piles as the water falls show that the precaution is not taken an ica ant too soon, even if it than avails. Just at this most critical period the slight wind gra- dually changes, and blows from the station out towards tho fire, rolling back the mingled clouds of smoke and sparks and fl line again in the direction of the river. The ruins amid which the fire rages become then distinctly visible from the entrance to the Wool- wich stat on, overlooking Tooley-street, and the síht disclosed is one which it is impossible either to describe or forget. Spreading far and wide amid gaunt ruins of walls, cracked and riven out of shape, lies a perfect sea of fire al- most as white as snow, from which the red flames spring in massive leaps, and scatter like explosions myriads of charred embers high into the air. Now a puff of wind will act on the ruius far and wide, like a blast, thro ugh a furnace, and they spring into a whiteness to which the glare of sunlight is more darkness. While these gleams last the spectacle is tremendous. 011 every side are only great vistas of rugged walls and white gleaming streets, the very pavements of which Rive off a livid glire that is blinding to look at. The walls still standing, but white with heat and cracked in all directions, seem like pillars of fire, against which, as the breeze drops, the flames rise again, and, licking up their sides, seem to flap against them, and bring the glowing bricks down in long streams. On every side a great mass of flames is struggling. Nothing can be seen but a town of falling ruins, with great rafters swaying about in hery tan- gles before they fall headlong down-nothing heard but the roar of flames and shouts of excited thousands, which drown even the incessant dull thumpings of the engines that are working in all directions. It seemed as if nothing coulJ stop the fire. There were great warehouses which were called fireproof, with massive brick walls, iron roofs, and stone lfoors. But against such intensity of heat nothing availed. To the eye they were seen to be redhot, like shells of furnaces, until their con- tents poured out through doors and windows in great streams of flames. Perhaps, however, the most awful view of the destruc- tion going on was to be seen from London-bridge. Half the inhabitants of the metropolis were thronging towards this centre on Saturday night, for from the bridge was to be seen such a spectacle as we trust will never be beheld again. The north side of the Thames, with all its massive buildings, seemed red hot in the dreadful light, while on the south the glare and heat from the blazing ruins were almost blinding. Foul and thick as are the waters of the Thames at low tide its diny waves were nevertheless penetrated by the intense light, and the river seemed almost turned to blood, but so bright and lurid in its deep glow that it actu- ally appeared like a stream of fire. There seemed flame everywhere, in the air, in the water, even, as we have said, on the side of the river, where the Custom-house and great public buildings looked red hot, and their rows of windows, reflecting back the sheets of flame, gave them just the appearance of being themselves on fire inside. Never pro- bably, even when the Great Eastern left the Thames, has the river been seen so thronged with small boats. From far below the Custom-house to above London-bridge the stream was actually covered with them. All the roofs of the houses, the public buildings, the masts and spars of vessels, the quays and wharves, the tops of church steeples-even the gallery of the Monument—were crowded with thousands upon thousands of spectators. Looking down from one of these eminences upon the bridge, the river, and the sur- rounding buildings, all swarming with countless multitudes, but swathed in the same deep fiery glow, it made one of the most wonderful and terrible spectacles ever witnessed in England. Probably at no tiine-even during the Great Fire of London -was there ever seerip such a mass of flame and heat as roared and seethed so dreadfully on Saturday night along the south side of the river. All the small boats on the Thames were, of course, obliged to keep close over to the Middlesex shore. The intense heat rendered this necessary, but there were other dangers as well. As warehouse after warehouse caught, the barrels of salt- petra and tar with which some were stored exploded, and came pouring forth in streams of liquid fire, which floated out upon the water in great sheets, and broke up at last into little islands of flame, which went drift- ing up the river. All the vigilance and activity of the Thames Police was necessary to beat and scatter these out as they came through the bridge. But all those exertions would have been in vain to check the devastation which must have been caused by these floating masses if the remains of the shipp burnt earlier in the evening had not acted as a kind of breakwater to their movements. The great mass therefore of this liquid fire gathered round the fragments of the hulls, and kept their charred ribs glowing. At a little after 12 o'clock the fire had burnt quite through to Tooley-street. A huge granary lower down the river, supposed to be fire-proof, became apparently red-hot, and the flames could be seen whirling round and round through the stories till at last they found a vent through the roof, aud, belching upwards for a few minutes in one great pyramid of sparks and fire, left only the hollow glowing walls standing. Still the lfaraes continued to spread, not only down the river, but backwards through Tooley-street, towards Bermondsey and the railway. After 12 o'clock a great many additional engines came in from distant parts of the country, but they would have been powerless even to chok the spread of the flames but for the trifling change we have mentioned in the wind, which kept the great mass of sparks and heated air out over the river. But for this half Bermondsey would have been laid in ashes. Soon after midnight an immense line of wall, facing the river, the shell of the warehouse in which the fire began, fell outwards with a hideous crash. The scene it disclosed was absolutely appalling, and the sudden glow of heat could be felt far out upon the river. Moored alongside Chamberlains-wharf was a small sloop, which, as 1 soon as the wooden sheds took fire, was looked upon as doomed. At first might be perceived upon the cordage of the rigging a few small specks of fire like little blue blisters, which gradually became more and larger, until they ran into one, and then the mast began to bl ize. Then on the sides of the little vessel, and then upon its deck, other little blue blisters burst out where the heat of the burning wharves had ignited the tar, and very soon the sloop was all on fire from stem to stern. While she was burning, there came a barge, with flowing sails, borne on the rising tide. The eddy drew it too near the conflagration the heat—which scorched the faces of people standing on the landing-stage at Billings- gate-was insuportable, the three men on board became alarmed, they loat all control of themselves, the barge drifted inland, while they raised their hands and shouted for help. A boat rowed out and took these three men off, and in less than two minutes their birge lay with its broad- side to the river of fire next the shore, and was blazing from one end to the other. Later in the night a small skiff, rowod by a single man, was drawn close upon the vortex of the fire in the same way. Another boat ran out, took the man off, and conveyed him to a placo of safety; but it is said that a second boat, pulled by a single rower, which went in shore with the same object, met with a different fate, being itself drawn in too far. The man was rendered powerless by the heat, he lifted his hands for help as the man had done he thought to aid in saving; but he hid gone too far to be rescued, and it is rumoured that he and his boat were both burnt together. Then there was a second barge ignited by the floating, blazing tallow, but that being further removed from the heat, was scuttled, and so took no great harm. It should be added that when the boatmen took the three men off the barge a tremendous cheer burst forth from the spec. tators and almost drowned for a time the roar of the fire. Instances like these created an intensity of excitement which can hardly be imagined by those who were not wit- nesses of the scene. While Chamberlain's Wharf was in full blaze it was feared by many that St. Olave's Church and Topping's wharf would follow, but, fortunately, a vacant piece of ground interposed, which no doubt saved both. On the other hand, however, Hay's wharf, it became evident, had caught in the roof, through which dense clouds of smoke and sharp spires of flame were darting. The iron shutters for a long time kept in the fire here, except at intervals when it forced its way upwards; it must have been at least an hour after the top floor was blazing before the fire descended to the floor below. After that the other fl Jon followed, but the difference in the progress of the flames here and in the non-fireproof building was remarkable. So tremendous a degree of heat rendered the supposed fireproof qualities of the building of no avail in this instance, when everything iron became redhot; but with anything like an ordinary emergency to contend with there caunot be a ques- tion that this great pile of building would have been per- perfectly safe. As, however, it was thought it might yield, a large body of men had been employed earlier in the night in removing goods from the lower doors, audsthis was done to a considerable extent, but many casks of oil or tar so removed, upon the turn of the tide were drifted within reach of the firo, and, in turn, added to its intensity. When Hay's wharf was included the river sweep of the conflagration must have been 3.)0 yards, with a deep fore- ground of blazing oil and tallow. The higher the tide rose the wider became the sheet of flame, as cask after cask of tallow melted and rolled, liquidwise, into the Thames. As the tide rose attention became fixed upon the dock at the end of Hay's wharf, for the spectators were anxious upon two points-first, they wished to see if there was any possibility of escape of the two vessels lying there, close to the walls of the fireproof but fire-filled buildings and, secondly, they feared that the fire would leap the narrow chasm of the dock, seize on Beal's wharf, and then, as must have happened, burn down a great extent of wharfage pro- perty beyond. After midnight, when the water had risen sufficiently high, the screw steamer was towed out amid the cheers of the onlookers, and ten minutes later two tugs drew out an American bark, just as the iron shutters of the buildings fell out of the side next the dock, and the con- flagration shot forth its flercy tongues, amid bursts of cheering and hand-clapping, such as old Father Thames has seldom heard. And this rescue was none too soon. For hours one of the floating engines had been playing on the external wall of this building and on the rigging of the bark alternately but, despite this, the little blue blisters which heralded the destruction of the sloop and the barge had shown themselves on the cordage of the maintop- gallantmast, and once the rigging at that point was fairly in a blaze. The well-directed hose, however, had ex- tinguished this, and now the danger was at an end Thanks, too, to the fireproof character of the building and the interposition of the dock, it now became clear that on the river side the fire had done its worst. With a gap at each end, it could do no more in that direction, and in Tooley street the land engines had shut it in so that, besides the buildings comprehended within the wharves, only two houses, consisting of suites of offices, had been gutted. Still the fire Was raging, and was likely to rage, furiously. Under the fallen floors of the warehouses and in the oellars underground wu a vait quantity of combustible material. Casks of tallow yet remained to melt, while numberless bags of saltpetre and casks of oil and turpentine, with hundreds of tons of cheese, bitter, sugar, and bacon, were yet unconsumed. And still the people cane in fresh thou- sands to view the sight. Dawn found London-bridge still thronged with cabs, orniiib ics, carts, waggons, and vehicles of every description. Peripatetic vendors of ginger beer, fruit, and other cheap refreshments abounded, and were sold out half a dozen times over. Publichouses, in defiance of Acts of Parliament, kept open all niht long, and did a roaring trade, nnd so, for that matter, did the pickpockets, who blended business with pleasure, and had a ready hand for anything remunerative in their particular line. But the fire, fortunately, had done its worst, and though the flames continued to surge and roar with unabated fury for some time, the intensity of the fire at length visibly slack- ened. The efforts of the firemen were rdoublc,I, and by 4 o'clock on Sunday morning all danger of its further extension seemed at an end. During the whole of Sunday thousands upon thousands of people flocked to see the ruins, which even at miduigiit last night were blazing fiercely as ever within the area to which they had be-m confined. As the walls are all in a most dangerous condition and cer- tain soon to fall, none, whether firemen or police, arc allowed to approach them. Lite on Sunday night the danger of another terrifio outbreak of the fire seemed ai imminent as ever. The ruins extend over nearly three acres of ground, and the immense piles of white-heat which cover this large area might at any moment be fanned into the fiercest flame, which nothing could prevent from spreading. One small portion of the ruins, that near the remains of the wall under which poor Braidwood's body is supposed to be buried, have been partially cooled. The great mass, however, is burning tiercely, and likely to do so for a week to come. The list of casualties from this great disaster was as follows:—One poor Irishman, named Sullivan, was brought to St. Thomas's at 9 o'clock with his neck broken by the chain of the floating engine getting round him. Four men were also brought to ) St. Thomas's badly injured—viz., John May, a police-con- j stable, with John Deane, George Fnser, and Thomas lassoo,-all badly burnt, the latter dreadfully so. At Guy's one person nas badly injured by a fall. Only two persons are missing who are known to have been near the spot on which the wall fell. These two are Mr. Braidwood and the gentleman of the name of Scott, both of whose remains are still under the ruins. THE CAUSE OF THE FIRE,—LONDON, Tuesday--Tl,ere appears to be not the least doubt that the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion among the hemp. It is a much more common cause of such disasters than is generally sup- posed. Even in private houses, where damp and greasy clothes are left in disused scullery cupboards, it is known to be the first cause of many mysterious conflagrations. If the workmen had not committed the inexplicable fault of leaving open the sliding fireproof doors that -communicate between the warehouses there is no doubt the incipient combustion might have been stifled in its own smoke at the very outset; but these doors being unfortunately open all the floors were so filled with blinding smoke that nono could enter them for more than a few yards. Even then, how- ever, the seat of fire could be distinctly seen, and it was very small, so that had any engine been on the premises it is said it could have been extinguished at once. There was none, however, and the men could do nothing but look on till the engines came. THE Loss.—The loss and destruction of property it is now calculated will amount to the stupendous sum of zC2,000,000 sterling. To rebuild the landiug wharves and warehouses alone will cost, it is stated, at least £ 500,000, and of course the value of the warehouses bears but a small relative pro- portion to that of their contents.

DEATH OF LORD CHANCELLOR CAMPBELL.

THCOSTOFlUILWYACCIDENTS.I…

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I-,"',,'-FAIRS IN JULY.

RAILWAY TIME TABLE. i I-

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SOUTH WALES, MIDLANDS, & NORTH…

I VALE OF NEATH RAILWAY.

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TAFF VALE RAILWAY. ^

NEWPORT, ABERGAVENNY, & HEREFORD…

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