The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-09 00:00:00

THE GREAT FIRE ON THE NEVL

The Russian newspapers just received give the fol-
lowing particulars of the great fire at St. Petersburg.
The first signs of smoke among the hay barges moored
to the quay of the Neva were observed at one o'clock.
At that time there were about 100 lying together
alongside the quay, rime of them having less than 200
tons of hay aboard, and presenting the appearance of
immense oblong hayrisks built on barges 100 ft. to 150 ft.
long. In less than an hour forty of these were in
flames. The cloud of smoko was enormous. It
was like a huge dense black fog helloing over the
river, and contrasting sharply with hanging
clearness
of the atmosphere elsewhere. Nothing could be
done to save the barges. They were all of them too big
and too light to scuttle in a moment, and all the crews
could do was to get ashore as rapidly as possible, many
pursued to the quay by the flames. The fire brigade
soon arrived from the 13 leading stations of the capital
but the engines were of little use. Accompanying
them were two battalions of troops from the neighbour-
ing Preobrajenskv Barracks, and the soldiers and the
firemen were set to work to save the corn barges lying
below the Hay Tier. As the hay barges burnt round
the edges, they became detached from their moorings
and began drifting down the river. In the middle of
the river there was little or no shipping, and the
entire energies of the authorities became concentrated
in keeping the floating fire-ships away from the brigs
and barges alongside the shore. The river police had
only two floating fire-engines, with water power in-
adequate to the occasion, and their vessels, moreover,
were too weak structurally to serve as rams. This
latter objection did not apply to the numerous river
tugs, howevor, and some of these, especially one or
two under the control of Englishmen, made some
splendid charges into the blazing line of barges. The
ramming operations were watched by thousands of
people gathered along the embankment, and when-
ever any bold charge was successfully effected they
encouraged the captains with loud hurrahs.
The Hay Tier is situated on the upper part of the
river, and thus the barges had to float from one end of
the city to the other before the Gulf of Finland could
be reached. The upper part of the river is crossed by
numerous wooden bridges formed of barges strapped
together. These, as customary when the ice floats
down, were swung off to the sides. The barges, how-
ever, passed blazing underneath the Nicoll Bridge-
-in many respects like the Westminster Bridge
and many broke in two against the buttresses.
e Nev t embankment, extending for five miles
From the Hay Tier to the mouth of the river,
the people had a splendid unobstructed view of the
floating barges, of which 50 out of the 70 destroyed
passed in succession down the river. After dark the
scene became more picturesque still, and all night long
the barges could he seen from the city blazing. on the
sand banks in the Gulf of Finland, three or four miles
from the mouth of the Neva. The damage done ex-
ceeded a quarter of a million roubles, several thousand
tons of hay being destroyed. Only two persons were
injured. Loris Melikoff was among the many Minis-
ters and officials who watched the scene.