The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-01 00:00:00

THE GREAT PIRt.

Vesterclay. morning men -vere -employed to clear the
cellars oat;' and the persons engaged in barricading the
building recommenced operations. Others wers busily
employed in' tarrying the Bedding trem the sleeping
apartments still Unbuinti and the debris. Carpenters
are alto at *oil making the-necessary alterations in the
rooms of the Arcade for transacting the busiiiiii.Orthe
Home and the shipping department.
As we expected, a number of the missing men reported
themselves-to- the officials. Most of them had escaped
frein'thebiAing bUildings and had Made their quartet*
' in the neighbouring boarding hduses.- Withoitf- idabt
many will turn up in the eouree 'or two which
materially shorten the iiilsOf,..persons who are now
supposed to be lost. Still we cannot entertain the hope
,th.,44ate have been embedded in the ruins.
To-day men are at work clearing away the rubbish
.front.the-
itATTl or AN"OTItEIt SHE StPitittitS:
_ 'll4 evening, at a slate. Mr. Willis/0T the
Home, was inforMed of the Aeith; in a 'Pkblic-honse iti
Frederick-streecOf-the mate:of the ship beritkOjrl3ihu
Gillis, who assistO the superiiiitudeilt materialryonTthe
morning of the greOt'Ad irarseverely burnt:
" iNQUEST ON THE BODIES.

The inquest upon the bodies of JoSePh Clarke. And
Tolice.-officer Hardaker, the-two nefortlinate-inen whose,
•
death. vas occasioned by tb.;s, Darning of the Sailors',
Home, was held 3E.sterday, before P. F. ctirry, Psq.,
coroner. The Ara witness called was-JameiVilliams,
tdperintcndent of the Home. He lived 61116 Atomises,:

and slept in'a room on .t4e third storey, fOing,Paradiee-
ltreer.--114tit eleqn, Minnteg.. to .one Welock on Sunday
morning he iits thlikeiiea by the —night watellman,
-Eildiehilstian. 111 i-immediately got up, ilitC;ilT6tit
his night-clothes, when he, ;saw that the whole place
was on fire, H iiioUght, from the direction of that
fitog,-thal the fire had originated in { the fifth flat, in
eitheiNo. '42 bedroom, or No. 43. Ass:amen, named Sack-

son, slept in one of those fOOIIISI and a boy, *hose nape
wituess.did iiot t:407, in the other.- ,Aliottt
saw tlie creet4sed-rnati, Hardakeri go up one of thelaiidcrs,
With a britch hose in his hand. About other men ran
up after him, and when deceasred was nearly at the Op,
the ladder: br4e the middle; and he fell noon the
flags beneath,-"a -clista,nto of ab'dut tO feet. Ire was
inamsdiately.:4lcnu Jo the Southern .Ilosplial. Witness
some othei person went to tee whether they could

save anything_ out of the balk. _They suepdeded in
getting into tire' bank, and *bile there, the tier of the
dining.-roopt fell in, Cilisiling cleceasid Man, Joseph
Clarice, and otheirs who *ere trying tO-laye-sOine of the
boold. Witness obtained 'dog.serews, and
iVith sonic- additional aid; succeeded in extricating
Clayke, after he had lain ; in the.: rdiiis itnie two
hours. The captain and tI Vi• of H. M. S. Hastings,

were present, and `rendered great assistance in extin-
guishing th 6 ire. Each inmate 'of the Home has ,a
bedroom to himself, and he is provided with a key, with
which he can lock his door. - Witness has a pass-key
which would open all the doori. Ey the regulations of
the institution smoking was strictly oobibitpci, and bills
to that effect, were, gostea on the Walls Upstairs. There
were 64 sailor inmates on the' boblth, and 17 servants.
About 70 mustered on Saturday night. WittteAs thought
that the fire had originated by One smoking 'in
bed until the clothes- taught; -'and that thus the flames
had spread froth room to room, Jukson, who occupied
one appei rooms, was so careless with hi's4ll3e,
that yesterday (Monday) morning witness ,saW' biro set
14 clothes on. fire b:si. puffing a lighted pipe in his
pocket,' '' The flats in the Home were visited every_night-
,....
Gii-garday night trey *ere- visited Shortly before 12
o'clock, *hen all was safe.
iriah Christian;- the -next witness, was the night.
watchnianat the Sailor's Home. About five minutes
past twelve o'clock he visited all parts of the building,
and found all right. On the:ground fl,or there were
two men sitting by the fire, btit they.were not smoking.

They were sober. Witness sent them up stairs

twenty minutes past tWelye he heard screams of murder
front the•upper fiats, and on going upstairs saw a -man
run out of bedroom number4o. which was on fire.

William_ Gray,-policebofficer- 645, was on-duty at the
fire' on Satttrday;.night. He Was on, tg:third storey
When the floor of the dining-room in. He saw the
ladders- and heard" an order for the ffiremen ta come
downo,:;sllortly after this an itlitrm wag given that there
was a Man huried 'beneath the timbers of the dining-
rooni tier: Witness ' saw the deceased man rosetni
Clarke drAgged out after he had• been .buried abeht
three hours. , •
.Ro,bert Simon, a police-constable, deposed that he
went into the bank with Clarke, and that when the

floor above fell down he (witness)" was buried beneath,
and only escaped with great difficulty by getting hold of
a Tricker..., - .
C. O. jaF,Jcsop said, he wath seaman, and arrived in
Liverpool 'on last Mondarvreak. He lodged at the
'Sailors? Honie.-- On-'Satniday night- he went -to—bed;
'between half-past eleven `to twelve o'clock.

He alept_in No.-40, en-the third-liat. On going to bed--
:he sm.elt something like fiie, _but supposed it to °Cane
'from the fires down stairs. A feW minutes, after twelve
o'clock he awoke, and found his bedroom filled with
smoke ;414 adjoiniiig'roorris were completely enveloped
intarnes: He warequite Bober. Upon seeing the fire .
hegm an alarm, and the police entered.
Police-officer 553 was also called, and said that when
•on duty' he obsdrit.ika bpi of.: maiches: thrown from one

of the upper windows, facing'A.rgyle-street.
Rol?!ntjtql..4.lo„ police-officer 564, assisted to, raise
the ladder from which Hardaker fell. It wa3 .50 :rent

high. Witness went up first, UM the deceased called
and preceeded lip with thd here -hi4selt
The raddei• slipped-a few feet at the bottom, and then

broke: -
Major Greig-said that an-examination had been-made
of the ladder Used on the occasion.. The Chairman -of
the tatch Committee was also anxious to inquire intO7.
the case; and he had assisted at the examination. The
ladder is about 40 feet high, and broke at about one-
third from the top. These ladders are made especially
for fires, and both the ladders and the hose are examined
aftei'a fire by Mr. Hewitt. He (Major Greig) could
not imagine how this accident occurred, except it was
by the constable's placing it too suddenly against the
wall, and having a large angle at the top.
Mr. Heiritt-leposed that he was the superintendent
of the fire brigade: 'Hie !received inferniation of the fire
at about:five minutes to one o'clock, and was on the
spot shortly after. They had IS or. 14 ladders of various
lengths and of, different degrees of --'strisinith. The,
ladder which broke upon the present ()ensign was one of,
their last new ones. Some time ago a ladder broke -in
the same way, and he believed it was in consequence of
placing it against the wall at too great an angle.
The Coroner, _in addressing the' jtiry, said that
a more. distressing ease than- the present could not
be witnessed, It was distressing, not only as regards
the loss. of life,- but also when they considered
the _truly_ noble_ building that= had been destroyed.
The Sailors' Honie furnished. a dolnfottable abode
to -hundreds_ and- thousands_Who would -have-been,
but for it, the Victims of ithpasition and fraud. This
had now _beet swept a,waY.', Ee alluded to the' hill
whiCh bad been 'introduced by the .Home Secretary
with regard to coroners iiot holding inquests in cases
of fire. In the present case a meritorious officer had
lost hislife by endeavouring Co extinguish the flames.
They lad two verdicts to return in the one case, death
was' caused 'by the falling in of a floor ; and in the
other, 'by the breaking of a ladder. It was for them to
say whether either these was the result of negligence.
Respecting Mr. Hewitt, he felt sure that,no One who
had seen the able manner in which the- inspection of
the fire-extinguishing 'apparatus was conducted by that
gentleman, could think any flaw patent to the eye could
escape his detection.
The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death"
in the case Of Clarke, and also in the case of Hardaker.
They also expressed themselves highly satisfied with
Mr. Hewitt's conduct in the matter.
' Mr. Stone, agent of the Liverpool and London Fire-
Insurance Company,. spoke,' in :complimentary
terms of his experience of the efficiency of Mr. Hewitt's
brigade, and their zeal in the.diseharge of their duties.