The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

FATAL FIRE AT BELFAST.

The &orthcrn Whig reports a shocking fire at Belfast. h.
which three persons lost their lives, and two others were
so much injured that they are not expected to live. It
began in the establishment of a hat and bandbox manu-
facturer, named Mulcahy, Church-street, and through a
lamentable want of forethought neither the police nor the
fire brigade were informed of the fire until it had made
considerable progress. A man named Martin heard
the cries of the inmates, and at once made efforts to,
save them. He pi °cured a ladder, which was, unfortu-
nately, too short, but which a number of the too zealous
crowd attempted to climb. The result was that the ladder
through over stress snapped, and a man, as we are in-
formed, had his arm dislocated. On the alarm being given
at the
_engine - station, the brigade, under Superin-
tendent Reilly, started with the greatest possible
despatch ; and in five minutes from the ringing
of the fire - bell Deputy - Superintendent Moorhead
and Hugh Nelson were in the room in which
Mrs. Macaulay and the children were. This apartment,
which turned out to be the kitchen, is situated on the third
floor, and this rendered the difficulty all the greater in
reaching them. The members of the fire brigade put up
one of their ladders, and with the assistance of another
ladder, which had in the meantime been procured by the
crowd, they ascended. At this time the room was filled
with smoke, which also came rolling in dense clouds out of
the window at which the firemen were. Nelson said he
heard a sound, which must be of some person breathing.'
In he then went, through the window, followed by Moor-
head. When inside, the sounds were, of course, more
audible ; and, having felt around, they discovered Mrs.
Macaulay lying close to the window, with the two
youngest children in her arms. The second eldest girl
was first caught hold of by the firemen, who brought her
to the window, when each man took a separate ladder, and
she was thus lowered to some other members of the bri-
gade, who received her when about half-way down. A
shout from the crowd rent the air as they saw the girl upon
the ladder. Moorhead dashed back into the room, when
the first object he got hold of was the eldest girl. She,
poor thing, had been too long subject to the fire and
smoke to render any assistance herself ; but the firemen,
with almost incredible agility brought her out by the
window, and lowered her in the same way as before amid
still louder cheers. Mrs. Macaulay and the poor little
children were, however, still to be saved. One of the
men took a child in each arm, and, coming quickly
down the ladder, delivered up the little ones, but, while
descending, shouted to his fellow-firemen to get a rope.
His object in doing this was that they might have it
for the purpose of lowering Mrs. Macaulay, who, we
may state, was a very stout, weighty person. The
rope, which was speedily procured, was, without a
moment's delay. called into requisition. The heroic
firemen, who stood firm to their post, under all the
difficulties which we have already mentioned, tied the rope
round the poor woman's body under the arms, and,
havin,, had it firmly secured, brought her to the window.
when both men took the rope and lowered her down the
ladder to those below, who eased the burden as it de-
scended. While this was being done the men upon
the ladders were in a very critical position from the flames
bursting around them. The inhabitants of the ad-
joining house, which is occupied by Mr. Sparrow,
statuary manufacturer, sought to reach the perishing
women and children by breaking a hole through the wall
into the kitchen. This they did : but the only effect it
had was giving vent to the smoke, which drove them from
the aperture. They then made a similar breach through the
wall into the bedroom, which is situate behind the kitchen;
but their praiseworthy efforts were also foiled here in like
manner. Mr. Joseph Mulcahy, the head of the above unfor.
tunate family, who was the proprietor of the hat and hatbex
manufactory in question, is, it appears, also a musician. He
was absent from his residence, and pursuing his practice as a
violinist in the Corn Exchange from seven o'clock until
after ten, when the sad intelligence was conveyed to him
that his shop was on fire, and that his family had been
suffocated. The condition of the poor man when he came
upon the scene of the occurrence and discovered that
the story was almost literally fulfilled, could hardly be
described. He was taken into the shop of Mr. Samuel
Martin, painter, Church-street, where he burst into a
passion of agony, which was afterwards somewhat sub-
' duel by the people around him, who informed him th. t
two of his children (three had perished) were likely
gurTive,