The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-30 00:00:00

rthd:, 117.0irbf lEbitton

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'Clock.

TILIRSK RACES.—(This Day.)

[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.]
TRIAL STAKES.
Captain Wedderburn
Phyllis
Waterloo

Six ran.

SO WERBY PLATE.

Gammoner
Church Langton
Ten ran.
Won by a head.
FALCON STAKES.

Crinoline..
Valiant ..

Milksop

THIRSK HANDICAP.

Strathnaver
King of Scotland ... 2
Greencastle
Ten ran. Won by a head. Same between second and

third.
MOWBRAY STAKES.

Flying Cloud .
Raspberry
Paul Jones

1
2

Seven ran.

NAVAL APPOINTMENTS.—(This Day.)

Captain—George W. Preedy to the Agamemnon.
Master—Henry A Moriarty to the Agamemnon.
Paymaster—John N. Do Vries to the Agamemnon.
Clerks—Arthur H. Gore to the Nile ; James Wortley
to the Saturn.

Cornelius Noddall, Esq., to be Master Attendant at
the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, Gosport, vice
Davis, superannuated.

THE LATE DISASTROUS FIRE AND LOSS
OF LIPS IN BLOOMSBURY.

This morning at 11 o'clock Mr. Wakley, coroner for
the Western Division of Middlesex, opened an inquiry
at the Fox Tavern, Doke-street, Bloomsbury, into the
cause of death of the unfortunate individuals who lost
their lives at the late calamitous fire in Gilbert-street,
Museum-street, on Sunday morning.
Previous to swearing the jury,

The Coroner addressed the gentlemen summoned,
saying be intended sitting to-day until 3 o'clock, and if
they did not conclude the enquiry by that time he should
adjourn it till Thursday morning and sit till 3 o'clock.
If not then concluded, he should adjourn the enquiry
over for a week or ten days. It may be a very brief
enquiry, or it may be a very protracted one, and he men-
tioned it that no gentleman might be sworn on the jury
and bound over to appear day after day to whom it might
be inconvenient to attend. If any gentleman was likely
to be out of town, or wished, or was likely to be called
away by business engagements on Thursday, or the early
part of next week, he would advise him at once to name
it, in order that he might be excused from further attend-
ance, because it would be awkward for gentlemen to be
bound over to appear and incur heavy penalties for not
attending.

• Mr. Cooper askt:d if the enquiry extended over a
month or mix weeks the jury would be bound over to
attend ?

The Coroner said'.—Yes. His knowledge of the cir-
cumstances was at present limited, and he could form no
opinion until after he had heard the evidence on oath.
It was an awful calamity, and it was one of the most
horrid sights he ba.d ever r een. Ne time would be mis-
spent to endeavour to discover the cauqe, and to pre-
vent, if possible, the recurrence of a similar calamity.
Mr. Cooper said he believed the whole of the proposed
jurymen were tradesmen, and it would be ex,.reali ngly
inconvenient for thrrm to attend for three months. lie
instanced the protracted irquiry in Tottenham-court-
road.

The Coroner said. oven in that case the jury would be
bound to attend. He took it there were no gentlemen
summoned on tha jury connected in any way with the
proprietor of the for emises.

The jury were tilt en sworn, Mr. Alanal, churchwarden
of St. Gles's, being selected as forenaln..
The Rev. llorai3e Roberts, and several of the pa-
rishioners were proe eut during the enquiry.
Mr. Sampson Lc,w and Mr. Inspector Badderley at-
tended to watch th.e• proceedings on behalf of the It lye!
Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.

The jury then pr)ceeied to inspect the premises, and
also to view the. bodies of the unfortunw.e sufferers,
fourteen in nurnbe r, which were lying in the dead house
of St. Gi:es's
.Wor ithouse. Their appearance has already
been mieutely des er,bed. The young man Smith, who
jumped out of the window, is lying at University College
Hospital,

The names and aages of the 14 persons on whom the
inquiry was held uvere—Richard smith, 40 ; Harriett,
his wife, 41 ; Alfre.d, 16 ; Harriett, 13 ; Harvey, 11 ;
Walter, 9 ; Tbornaii, 7 ; Maria, 5 ;
and Jesse, 2 years of
age, children of fat) first two name' ; Jas. H'dger, 53 ;
W Eliza, his wife ; illiam, 20 ; and John, 13 years of age,
children of Hedg sr and his wife.

On the return ( vf the jury, the Foreman and others re-
marked they had never witnpssel such a horrible siglit,
and raid to the Co tuner, " Did you ever in your expe-
rience witness such a horrible sight 1"
The Coroner—l certainly never did.
A Juryman—Oo vent-garden Theatre was burnt down
without a single life being lost, and here a miserable
hovel takes fire ant 1 all these lives are lost.
The Coroner—l really cannot understand it.
The first w:tneris called was

Alfred Chilmrbn , No, a,
Graham-street, Walworth-
road, porter, who deposed he was brother to the de-
ceased Mrs. &nigh. He identified her body and that of
her husband and children, now lying at St. Giles' Work.
house. His brot h!3r.in.law was a porter. He was a poor
labouring man, rand he and his family were in great
distress.. He mrver knew him or his sister attempt or
threaten to com mit suicide. At times, he regretted to
say, he was griven to drink. He was not aware
if any of the, children were in burial clubs,
The last time be saw his sister alive was at
his house at Walworth ; ohs then complained that
the house was eirtlit for them to live in, and that as soon
as she could get a partinents she should leave; she was
then looking out for apartments in Pied Ball-yard ; be
knew nothing of the fire except from general report. He
had been to the house where they occupied two rooms,
a front room and a back room on the second floor. The
rooms adjoined and opened into one another. There
was no back wind ow to the house, and the family had
to come from the, back-room to the front-room before
they could get to the landing. There was a skylight ;
but he did not kno w if there was a means of egress from
it. There were fc iur rooms on each floor. He did not
know who else lived in the house. There was no venti-
lation or light f °Jr the back-rooms but that borrowed
from the staircase..

By a Juryman— -His sister's reason for wishing to leave
was the dilapidatf ,d state of the house, the rain came in
from the skylight and made the room so damp that it
wai unfit for the e:b ildren to sleep in. His brother-in-law
had not been in oanstant work for some time. His
sister had compli&ined of a carpenter's shop under the
dwelling which sti,e considered dangerous and that she
would leave. Hecr reason for not leaving was that she
could get no one to take her hi. The shop was opened
about Christmas last. There was an outlet from the
back-ground floor befoie it was turned into a carpenter's
shop. The deceas ed Smith and his family had resided
in the house about six years.
_

a lEa
bl iozuarSera,rsdoenp,olBoo,l L
—R iflaaamrdtsh e
daug
Itaggerstone, wife of
Eliza Hedger and :sister to the chiloran. I identify three
lottr of William and
of the bodies. M y brother John is so much disfigure...
that I cannot identify him. My father was a journey-
man biscuit baker and confecttoner ; he lodged on the
second floor and occupied two rooms. I ant not aware
if my father and 'mother had attempted suicide ; they
were not in distress. - I last saw them in the house
last Sunday week :; they had lived in the house nearly
three years.
The Coroner—Do you know where the fire broke out !
Theila C er--A
in(otrhoenbeaaktd where
Yes Sir,
in the carpenter's shop.
then 2
Hain—l have a witness who knows all about it.
Witness continued—They had a front and back room.
By the jury--.f don't know anything that compelled
them to live there; they only owed a fortnight's rent.
She never heard them make any complaint about the
house • but my fa ther frequently said that if a-fire took
place :hey would all be burnt to death. They had never
experienced any fears as to the stability of the house.
James George Fleming, No. 11 Fire Brigade, deposed
—I belong to the Chandos-street Fire Eugine Station ;
I was at the fire:, and got there fourth, arriviug at
about half-past 3 o'clock. After the fire was over I
assisted in getting; out the whole of the bodies. The
young man was found near the front wall, and near the
window at tne east of the building on the second floor.
The floor had faller), and the front wall before the bodies
were found. Front the position of the body I cannot
say where it must have been. When I arrived there
I saw the front would fall, and I gave an alarm. It
then immediately fell, roof and all, and we had a narrow
escape. The walls, floor, roof, and all fell in a second.
After cooling the ruins, and whilst the ruins were still
burning, I went by direction of my foreman into the
ruins, where I found a young man near the front wall of
the east end; his father was underneath him.
We then cleared away the ruins farther, when
we found eigl4 children, males and females.