The National Register.
London, England, 1816-04-07 00:00:00

DREADFUL FIRE AT NEWFOUNDLAND.

The following is an ext, act of a T.etter, from Plymouth
to the Committee at Lloyd's, dated A pril 3 :—" I am sorry
to inform you, that a ship is just arrived from Newfound-
land. and brings the melancholy news, that St. John's is
bee of down. Report sari, that some of the families ate
arrived in the vessel that brings the account."
" Paters, hen. 17.—Retween the hours of eight and nine
of the 12th instant, a Gee was discovered in the house of
Edmund Walsh. in Gambier-street, about two doors front
:hr south side of Duckworth-street. The inflammable ma-
terials of which the buildings of the town are constructed,
excited the most alarming apprehensions. The wind blew
furiously tom the suutb-east quarter, and rapidly bore the
flames to the range of houses forming the north shit, of
Duekworth-street, while the all-Jest/wrier, element elso ex •
tended its ravage:. to the south, against the wind. and.west-
ward, towards the cluster of new buildings lately erected on
the extensive premises of Messrs. Crawfsl and Co. and by
five iielocknn the morning of the I bth instant, all the build-
iligs between Sawyer's Corner, at the east end of Duck-
worth-street, and the new Methodist Meeting-house, at
Gill's Shute, westward, and from the co. ner buildings on
the King's Beach, facing the Ordnance Nl' liar& to the erec-
tions opposite Messrs. hunters and Cos. Watet-rtueet,
comprising about ISO houses, were completely destroyed,
In these a:e included the houses in the Custom-11011,e lane,
north of Duckwcrth-street. The Custom-house and ad
joining buildings happily and narrowly escaped. Oceasi.
meal showers of snow and rain, that tell during the contla.
gration, somewhat retarded the pi ogress of the flames; and
the removal of one or two I:nuses in Water-street gi eatl v
contributed finally to subdue the fi c Our limits will nut
allow us at this moment, to go into a very minute detail of
the calamitous event.

•• When the Names reached the north side of Water-
strcet, facing the premiss of Messrs. James Macbraire and
Co. the immense body of fire, almost in contact (from the
narrowness of the passage at this point) with the houses on
the south side of the street, soon communicated theitlames
to the front and roofs of those buildings. It was here that
cr y cell ant Binary efforts were requited, and weie happily
exerted; for upon the success of those eflorts depended the
security of the most impoi tent part of the town.
••'l be volumes of fire detached from the mote immediate
scene of destruction, and cart ied by the storm to buildings
not in imminent peril,. filled the inmates with terror And dis-
may; and in the removal of their goods, considerable da-
mage has been sustained.
'the aggregate pecuniary loss has been mode-attly es•i.
mated at upwards of too,oord.; and about 1.500 petions
have been driven to seek new a'.oles, in the most inclement
month of a Newfoundland winter.

To the seamen from the King's ships, and the troops
from the garrisons, directed by their respective officers,
every praise is due; tier it is to theirsteady conduct, in con-
junction with the efforts of the orderly and respectable in-
habitrats, that we itand indebted fur the preservation of the
mpst valuable part of the town. I lere it becomes our in-
dispensable duty to state, that the bulk of the lower orders
fd the community stood, during this 41icting moment,
with their aims folded. surveying the disastrous scene with
an apathy disgraceful to the human character. Many of
this description, instead of contributing their eiforts to ar:
rest the progress of the Names, or to aid the unhappy but:
foci's, appeared to have no object but pillage : and the dis.
tiess of their unfortunate fellow creatures bare, of course,
been aggravated."
At five o'clock Friday storm morning, the school-room of the
York Military Asylum at Chelsea was discos ered to he on lire;
and it was so near morning, that immediate assistance was af-
forded by the active exertions of the little objects of this noble
charity,who, to the number of several hundreds, were cm-
ploy ca in procuring water; and, by the speedy arrival of enf-
eines flout town, by len o'clock In the morning the fire was ex-
tinguished, but not until a considerahle portion of the interior
of the southern extremity of the main edifice was consumed
1131111 the d g-hull to the roof.
About ten in the forenoon of Tuesday last, • chimney took
fire in the hamlet of Belvoir Ley, commonly called Iteirearlee,
near Eastwood, Notts, and such was the dreadful rapidity with
which it raged, aided by a very high wind, that in spite "revery
effort to the contrary, the flames communicated to some contr.
gllOllll and some distant buildings, and, in less than two hours,
eleven houses, a wheat-stack, a nay-stack, two barns containing
corn and hay, and a framesmitlfs shop, were reduced to ashes
and confused heaps of snioaising ruins. Etc e frames, iu the
fraluestnith's shop were. destroyed, except the woodwork of one
of them ; and in one of the barns a calf and a pig were con-
fined. 'the pig forced its way out, but the calf was burnt to
death. And, to add to the calamity, the occupiers of the houses,
all of them working people with &amities, tool not the opportu-
nity of saving scarcely a single article of furniture, or even
clothing, except what they had ea.