The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-01 00:00:00

The Fire at the Crystal Palace.

A cause of the fire has been suggested as probable.
It is supposed to have originated in a place used as
a paint and store-room in the north-east corner of
the building, and near the water tower. Adjoining
that room the boiler of a powerful steam engine
used in pumping water was housed, a slight wall
separating the two. After the fire a hole was found
in the partition, and the firebox of the boiler had
been driven from its place in the direction of the
wall. The theory is that some one in charge of the
• boiler may have banked up his fire, closed the door
of the furnace and left the place. The effect of a
fire so banked up might be to generate gas, for it
would act like a retort ; but still the gas, if gene-
rated, would simply burn, and not explode, unless
mixed with atmospheric air. It is further suggested
that the damper connected with the boiler may
have admitted sufficient air to cause an explosion,
and that the firebox, driven from its position
against the wall, may have made the breach which
was afterwards found in it, and set the paint room
on fire.

The directors, with Mr. Bowley, the manager,
and Mr. Grove, the secretary, had a meeting at the
Palace yesterday, at which they instituted an in-
quiry as to the cause of the disaster, but the result,
if any, did not transpire. They are understood to
have expressed themselves in grateful terms to
Captain Shaw for the energy and discretion shown
by him in the emergency. On arriving at the scene
of the fire the whole of the northern transept had
fallen in, and he directed all the means and ap-
pliances at his disposal to prevent its spreading
beyond the screen separating the rest of the nave
from the tropical department, in which he was
happily
the building was saved from entire destruction.
successful, and by that means, probably,
While he was so engaged he was much urged by
strangers and others to detach some of the men of
the brigade and engines to operate on the water
tower, which was on fire in several places ; but he
resisted all such importunity, knowing that the
tower was then completely isolated, and not likely
to be the means of communicating fire to any other
part of the Palace, and he employed all his energies
and those of the brigade to confine the fire to the
tropical end. That achieved, he applied himself to
extinguish the fire in the water tower, in which he
also succeeded.

There were upwards of 8,000 visitors at the Palace
yesterday.

LIFEBOAT SERVICES.

Information was broughthereVl
East
eovneDn,inFgriddauyri.n g
a violent gale of wind that nine workmen, who had
been employed on the Dogger Sand Bank for the
Wexford llarbour Commissioners, were endeavour-
ing to reach the shore in their own boat. As they
thereby ran a great risk of losing their lives, the
lifeboat Civil Service, of the National Lifeboat In-
stitution, was launched to their assistance, and was
fortunately the means of .rescuing the men, who
were much exhausted when taken into the lifeboat.
CA ISTOR, Saturday.
A vessel was seen to stop last night, near the shoal
of the Barber Sand, and soon showed signal lights
of distress. The Birmingham No. 2 lifeboat, be-
longing to the National Lifeboat Institution, was at
once launched, and on arriving alongside the vessel
she was found to be the brig Kelpie, of London,
laden with coals from Shields, and she was found
The lifeboat re-
.
n
sistance of a imanaargioneute
getting
re-
aground
gboyi: tirehoreffa,sand,and,
night,veirt yh
and
tlehae kays
ultimately succeeded
steam-
tug, she and the crew were safely taken this morn-
ing into Yarmouth harbour.

PENARTII, Saturday.
During heavy squalls last evening several flash
lightsnwere
the
shown
west fromend ef a
Cardiffves Sands. The s apparently in
life-
boatdis-
tress
of the National Lifeboat Institution was there-
upon launched, and proceeded in that direction. On
arriving alongside the vessel she was found to be
the bark Cedea of Bremen, bound from that port to
Cardiff, in ballast, and that she was not in distress,
but was signalling for her own boat, IN hich was on
shore with the master. After remonstrating with the
crew for showing distress signals unnecessarily, the
lifeboat returned to the shore.

SINGULAR CARRIAGE ACCIDENT.—On Thursday
evening last three ladies and a gentleman wore in a car-
riage on their way to Hams Hall, to attend the annual ball
given by the 'tight Hon. C. B. Adderley, M.P., and the
lion. Mrs. Adderley. When the carriage arrived at Forge
Mills the two white gates which span the road were open,
and the driver was proceeding on his way, when suddenly
the gates were blown inwards with great violence. The
gates coming into contact with the hind wheels of the
carriage tore them both off, and the carriage was upset, but
the driver was unhurt. The occupants of the carriage also
fortunately escaped injury.

THE AVRETcii !—A Doctor's wife attempted to
move him by her tears. "Ah !" said he, " tears are use-
less. I have analysed them. They.contain a little phos-
phate of limo, somo chlorate of sodium, and water."

It was not until the return of daylight yesterday
_ that the havoc caused by the fire at the Crystal
Palace on Sunday afternoon was completely die-
. closed. The whole of the northern end of the build-
ing has been destroyed, except a part of the low
narrow wing extending towards the east into the
grounds, at a right angle with the fabric, and used
chiefly as an orangery. The spaca between the
water tower and the screen which separated the
tropical department from the rest of the nave, about
a couple of acres in extent, is now strewn with
blackened masses of the fallen roof and other ma-
terials, presenting a deplorable spectacle. All that
remains of the northern transept are a few broken
outlines of the arches, and toWering.frotu amongthe
general wreck are still to be seen the two colossal
Egyptian figures copied from the temple of Rameses
the Great at Aboo &label, in Nubia, but now sadly
defaced by the action of the fire. They were 65ft.
high, and reached to the roof of the transept. Of
the Alhambra Court, on the west side of tho tropical
part of the nave, and also of the Byzantine and
Romanesque Court, facing it on the opposite side,
little is left but the bare walls ; the Queen's apart-
ments and the library and reading-room have
perished, as have also the extensive collection of
Indian curiosities and products, the Gallery of
Naval Architecture, the Aviary, and the whole of
the tropical plants. The remains of the stupendous
tree brought from the Sierra Nevada, iu California,
and which, when growing, is said to have been 400
feet high, have shared the same fate. The fire ap-
pears to have originated in the north-eastern wing,
from which it spread rapidly towards the main body
of the building, along the flooring and other wood-
work, which in the tropical end had become exceed-
ingly inflammable. It afterwards extended
to the great water tower, the floors of
which, at different -stortes, and the gallery
were for several hours burning at the same time.
It was first discovered by a police-constable on duty,
and he gave an alarm to a fireman in the company's
service within the building, and the only one who
happened to be there. Ordinarily there are three
of the company's firemen ou duty in the Palace,
but only one on Sundays. On receiving the alarm
the fireman screwed on a hose to one of the nume-
rous hydrants in the building, which are said to be
always charged at high pressure. That he gave to
the policeman to hold, while he screwed on another,
and, so equipped, they appear to have tried for
some time, but in vain, to cope with the fire. Being
Sunday there was some difficulty in collecting the
workmen belonging to the Palace to render assist-
ance in the emergency.
The remains of the young hippopotamus are said
to have been found among the ruins yesterday, but
to have been scarcely distinguishable. At present
it is impossible, with any approach to accuracy, to
estimate the amount of the damage done to the
building, but the company are said to be insured to
the amount of £BO,OOO upon the whole fabric,
£20,000 of which was apportioned to that part of it
which has been affected by the fire. During the
fire, and when it was not certain what turn it might
take, the flooring along part of the nave on the
south side of the screen was ripped up in places to
prevent it spreading in that direction. That pre-
caution having, fortunately, become unnecessary,
the flooring was reinstated in the course of the fol-
lowing night, and yesterday the Palace was open to
the public as usual.