The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-22 00:00:00

FIRE AND LOSS O 1 LIFE.

Yesterday morning, a few minutes before two
o'clock, a fire broke out in the house of Mr. Joel,
carrying on business as a stationer and bookseller,
42, Fore-street, Cripplegate. The building con-
tained, besides the warehouse, 10 rooms. The dis-
covery appears to hay. been made aimilltan....iy
by the policeman on the beat and a person passing
the premises, who noticed smoke in dense bodies
issuing from the lower part of the building. The
officer gave the alarm, and in the course of a few
minutes a son of the owner came down and effected
his escape by the street door. By opening it he
allowed the air to enter and drive the fire all over
the building. At that time Mrs. J. Joel, a lady of
60, a son named Samuel, aged 27, the servant, Ann
Johnson, aged 23, and Annetta Joel, age unknown,
were sleeping in different parts of the building.
The officer immediately sent off to the Finsbury
station of the Royal Society for the Protection of
Life from Fire, and also to the engine stations, for
proper assistance, and is the course of a few mi-
nutes Engineer Cooper attended with the brigade
engine from Whitecross-street, as well as Conduc
tor Briggs, with the Royal Society's escape. At
that time dense clouds of smoke were pouring out
of every window in the building, and loud screams
could be heard proceeding from different rooms.
Whether any one was standing at the windows
could not be ascertained owing to the density of
the smoke, which obscured from view the front of
the premises. The conductor raised his escape
in front of the building, and having ascended
it, entered the second floor, but could find no one
there. Hearing screams in the third floor, he made
for that part of the premises. The flames came
rolling up the staircase, making a noise like a fur.
nace, and the heat was intense. In the third floor
he found Annetta Joel, in a room which the flames
had by that time entered. At the same time the
fire was coming out of the windows below, He at
once seized hold of the woman, and was in the act
of placing her in the canvass bagging of the escape,
when the flames overtook them, so that the poor
woman losing all power of standing, the conductor
was obliged to lose his hold of her. She fell upon
the stone flags beneath. When raised she was
found to have been severely burnt over the whole
of her body and otherwise injured. She was at once
placed in a cab and removed to the hospital. Upon
the return of the driver he stated that she had died
before reaching that institution. The engines of
the parish, London Brigade from Watling-street,
Jeffreys-square, Wellclose-square, and Farringdon-
street stations,had arrived when the whole building
was in flames. The brigade engines brought with
them Capt. Shaw, the superintendent, Count Odon
Szechenyi, Mr. Bridges, the foreman of the district,
and sundry other officers. Five engines were set to
work; but, in spite of the exertions of the firemen,
who were assisted by nearly 100 hired auxiliaries,
the flames could not be extinguished until the pre-
mises and all they contained were nearly destroyed.
As soon as the ruins were sufficiently cooled to en•
able the firemen to enter, they found the bodies of
Mrs. Joel and the servant, terribly burnt, in the
third floor front. The body of Samuel Joel was
found at the bottom of the stairs, the position in
which it was leaving little doubt that he had tried
to get to the street door through the flames. The
remains were placed in shells and removed to the
dead-house to await an inquest. The origin of the
fire is not known. The contents of the house were
insured in the Alliance Fire office.