The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-03 00:00:00

The Fire at the Crystal Palace.

Yesterday workmen were engaged in repairing
and strengthening in various ways the screen which
separates the nave of the Palace from what was the
Tropical Department, but is now a mass of ruins.
This is being done in order to make the building
weather tight at that point, and so to promote the
comfort of visitors. To carryout this object the more
effectually an additional but temporary screen will be
forthwith erected, about 25f c. further north than the
main screen, thus rendering the Palace more imperr
meable to the elements in that quarter. It need hardly
be stated that the havoc caused by the fire has mate-
rially destroyed the general symmetry of the fabric.
This is at once manifest to any one who sees the
building in its present state from the railway or the
grounds. In the meantime all the various persons
concerned in the interest and care of the Palace,
from Mr. Bowley, the manager, and Mr. Grove, the
secretary, downwards, are doing their utmost tO
repair the disaster, so ftr as it lies with thmi to do
so, and seem prepared to profit by the lesson it has
taught them and all concerned in the future pro-
tection of the fabric from fire. With respect to the
canvas hose, to which • resort was bad in the first
instance in hurry, on the first outbreak of the fire,
and which proved unequal to the emergency at a
critical period, they explain that it was only the
hose ordinarily used for wa.ering the plants, and
that there was proper leathern hose in the building
for us: in case of fire. Again, as to the allegation
that the supply of water was at first provokingly
languid, Mr. Bowley, the manager, who lives in the
immediate neighbourhood of the Palace, and reached
the building in ten minutes after the first alarm was
given, states that on three different occasions when

he was assisting in extinguishing the fire in.the
Tropical Department he was nearly thrown down
by the force of the water, with which he was
drenched from a hose while it was being shifted
from place to place, and he declares his conviction
that with such amazing rapidity did the fire spread
from the place in which it originated, along the
woodwork lining in the sides and roof in which the
glazing was secured, that no means, however
effective, could have in the first instance arrested
its progress. That, however, is a matter upon
which opinion may differ ; but as to the supply of
water, probably both the objectors and Mr. Bowley
are in the right, though with this difference—that
the latter speaks of a time when the water had been
turned fully on after the arrival of Mr. Rose, the
engineer, who made that his first duty, whereas the
complainants refer to an earlier period, before the
mains had been turned on, and when, as they state,
the water required to be coaxed and cajoled.

The authorities at the Palace admit in
the most grateful terms the services rendered
in the first instance, and long before any
lire engines arrived, by Mr. Scott Russell, Mr.
Standriug, Mr. Ilolt, the Rev. Mr. Smith, and
other gentlemen residing in the neighbourhood, and
who were attracted to the building on the alarm of
fire. The great stand which all made against the
enemy was on the northern side of the screen, with
the view to confine it there, if possible; but they
also made simultaneous preparations to contest
every foot of ground with it in the event of its
passing beyond that point, by tearing up the floor
of the nave at short intervals, in order to break the
communication of inflammable material and by
other devices improvised at the moment. All these
were happily rendered unnecessary, hut they were
not the less wise or praiseworthy on that account.

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