The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-02-21 00:00:00

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reacu
stabtiturd
1g the ing
the rni and ,

A shle
of
bn, nigh
f e dant
t

horses

_
rounding
reagoving t.
tion of their premises. seemed .
o'clock the roof of the Pantechnicon fell with a great
crAsh, and the scene at that u.oinent wassaa terrible as
it woo grand. The firmest-lulled with a roar to a fear-
ful height and, being carried in a north-westerly direc-
tion Igsr a strong stissci.e.aomi,Laggst.weg.hbeit theoslY
existfog wing of the bnildrog. Phis a'ng was soon
burnt out, and nothing then nu skied to sornpletellie
entire destruction of what was A few boars before the
larginkan I moallilli.b*Witrehipuie L0p,14. Even
then the lire was far fromsrililitingailiic but by
hailf-gwat one o'othalh-on ingsa.4l &halal
of itg spreading win over.
11l day on Winder the fire wee blinking furioStsty.
. . . Seven steam fire-engines, each with a donbleliose,
were playing on the ruins. Tne amount in value of
the property dektroyed Jo not ascertainid, but it is
considertoly over £1,000,000, and the whole of the
fire aloes in London are involved in it.

The T Imes of Monday says

"The origin of the fire in still a matter of mere con.
lecture, though we were asked to state that the theory,
mentioned by way of rumour in The Times of Satur-
day, of the ignition of some matches by the fall of a
crate of furniture, is improbable. All that the pro:t
prietors know of the outbreak is that there was • strong
smell of burning on the afternoon of Friday, and that
it was traced to a warehouse on the second Idiot in the
northern extremity of the building, were some gom's
were found to be on fire clone to the wall. The foremen,
and the wurkpeople, 20 or 30 in number, at once got out
their manual engine and tried to extinguish the
flames; but they had difficulty in getting water
and were unable to make any visible effect. All
the iron doors were shut, except those by which
: the men could escape, and by way of further precan-
the heavy tarpaulins were thrown over all the goods on
the ground floor. Immediately on the alarm of fire being
raised, messengers were sent to the nearest telegraph
etattons to convey the information in that way to the
Fire Brigade, And Allure proceeded to the Westminster
engine station, in Victoria-ntreet, a dittance of half's'
mile, where the " call " WIN given. No time seems
to have been lost by the hire Brigade, for in less than
a quarter of an hour several steam sad manual engines,
with a number of firemen under Captain Shaw, were
on the Pp t. The lire at that time was not very large.
but the place was very difficult of access, the smoke
was overpowering, and the water supply, at first, was
extremely short. All these circumstances prevented
anything material being done to extinguish It, but the
engines went speedily to work, and every eff,rt was
made, though without success, to subdue the fiamer.

The Daily News of Monday sap :
" As to the individual losses sustained by the ownere
of the property stored in the building, the statements
which t ave appeared are nrcessari,y got...work, the
lessee, of the building knowing nothing of the contents
or the value of the packaged eli v red into their keep
-
trig. What is known as matters of fact ia, that some
valuable historical documents belonging tr the Styr
moor family, have been destroyed; that Sir Richard
Wallace, Mr. Wyn Ellie, Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, and
many other wellknown patrons of art, have lost large
collections of pictures and arttelee de cell; and that
amongst the property of a weir•known nch banker,
which has shared the common lot, were a few pictures
whioh he had rrcently bought in one lot for fifteen
I thousand guineas. Sir Simour Fitzgerald's losses
include a cellection of rare porphyry vase,. Mr. Winn
Ellis's misfortune will be considerably lightened by the
reflection that only six weeks ago he removed from
the rtdreroome rented by him the larger portion
of his gallery of pictures by old masters.
Maseru S :Mat and Rademacher are inundated
by letters of inquiry and calls from percent who
had property in the Pantechnicon ; but, with every
deeire to cattily the widespread ansiety, it will
be impoesible for several days to afford definite
information upon particular cases. In the meantime
it will he a general eatislaction to know that the cellars
in which the plate wae stored have escaped the fire,
End that the costly contents are safe. Dense crowds
congregated on Sunday in the locality of the fire, but
their curiosity was but eligh-dv eaustied, the police
hero icg Motoomb-street and Kinnerton-atreet closed
to al but resident/.