The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-08-31 00:00:00

FATAL FIRE AT BIRMINGHAM.

One of the most disastrous fires which have occurred
in Birmingham for many years, involving the loss,
under peculiarly distressing circumstances, of four
lives and injuries, to seveeal persons, broke out at a
late hour on Monday night on the premises of Mr.
Dennison, confectioner. The building was a four-
storeyed one, situate in one of the main arteries of the
town, only a few paces distant from the Bull Ring and
the parish church of St. Martin.
It was about a quarter to eleven when some young
men issuing from the Museum Concert-hall imme-
diately facing Mr. Dennison's premises observed a
flickering light behind the shop shutters, through
Which dense clouds of smoke were forcing their way.
The spectators gave the allem at once to the police-
man en duty in the hall, with whose assistance they
endeavoured to rouse the sleeping inmates, while mes"-
Bengers were despatched for the escape and fire-
engines. One of the party, with more zeal than discre-
tion, proceeded to pull down the shutters and break
the shop windows, with the inevitable effect of
liberating and fanning the raging furnace within.
The flames quickly mounted to the storey over the
shop and soon gained possession of the entire building,
cutting off all escape by the staircase. Presently Mr.
and Mrs. Dennison, in night attire, with their infant
child, were seen by the glare of the fire wildly gesti-
culating at the window of their bedroom, which was on
the third floor, and at a height of from :',Oft. to 40ft.
fsom the ground. Neither engines nor fire-escape had
Yet arrived, and the crowd, which now numbered some
thousands of persons, appeared to be momentarily para-
lyzed by the greatness of the exigency. At length
Someone bethought himself of ladders, and four or five
Were promptly procured from various business pre-
Miees in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, none of
these were long enough for the purpose, and the means
of lashing them firmly together was wanting. The
highest of the ladders fell several feet shoit of the sill
of the bedroom window, but Mr. Dennison, by a
gespeeate leap, succeeded in reaching it, and slid down
it some distance, when the ladder broke in two and
let him drop heavily to the ground, fortunately without
causing serious injury. Mrs. Dennison, with her child in
her arms, was evidently incapable of following her hus-
band's example, even had the ladder been still available.
and all hope of reaching her now centred in the ar-
rival of the fire-escape. A period of harrowing sus-
pense succeeded. The unfortunate woman, with her
infant tightly clasped in her arms, clung frantically to
the window-sill, shrieking for help. This lasted for
about ten minutes. At length, to the intense relief of
every one, the fire-escape was seen towering over the
heads of the crowd, who parted to admit it, and no time
was lost in erecting it in front of the blazing building.
Unfortunately in the confusion of the moment, the
sheet which usually accompanies the apparatus had been
east aside, and there was nothing for Mrs. Dennison
to jump into. A number of willing volunteers,
headed by a man named Breslin, quickly ascended
the escape amid the flames, which darted out far into
the street, and endeavoured, but in vain, to reach the
Window where Mrs. Dennison, now badly scorched
and half suffocated, was standing. The poor woman
had strength enough, to drop the infant into Breslin's
arms, but was unable to follow it herself, and, as the
sacking of the escape was now in flames, it was not
Without difficulty and injury that Breslin managed
to reach the ground. In his descent the infant, which
Was bsidly singed, slipped from his grasp into the hands
of a policeman below, and finally fell on to the pave-
ment. Thence it was taken in a dying state to the
hospital, where it expired at an early hour on Tuesday
Morning. With the burning of the fire-escape vanished
the last hope of rescuing Mrs. Dennison, though some
energetic attempts to reach her with ladders were made
on various sides. The unhappy woman, still clinging
to the window-sill, continued to shriek and gesticulate
feebly through the rising flames for about five minutes
after the descent of her child. She then hung sus-
pended for a brief space, with her head downwards and
her body half out of the window, and finally, with a
Convulsive writhing movement, dropped heavily on the
Pavement and was picked up lifeless.
In the meantime it had become known through Mr.
Dennison that there were two other inmates in the
house—viz, his wife's sister, (a young woman of about
twenty-four,) and the servant, a girl of fifteen. Two
female forms were soon after discerned through the
names and smoke at the window from which Mrs. Denni-
son had failen, but by this time the fire had become too
fierce for any one to remain there, and the women
quickly retreated into the r9om. Their scorched and
lifeless bodies were found in the ruins of the apart-
ment shortly before daybreak on Tuesday—the sister
under the bed where she had apparently crept for
alieltee from the heat, and the servant at 'a few paces
from leer. Owing to some defect in the fire brigade
arrangements the steam fire:engine could not be
Worked , and the hydrants which were employed to
Combat the flames were scarcely equal to the task. It
was nearly one o'clock, therefore, before the fire,
Which in the meantime had reached the roof of the ad-
joining building, occupied by Messrs. Meyrick and
Harvey, oil and colour men, was fairly got under.
The police and the firg brigade exerted themselves
Manfully, and several of them sustained injuries; but
owing to the defective organization they suffered
themselves to be mastered by the crowd, whose well-
Meant assistance sadly impeded their efforts.
It is supposed by Mr. Dennison that the fire origi-
nated through his servant lighting a match and throw-
it carelessly aside in the shop, to which she had been
lent for some article after the family had gone to bed.