The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 26, 1861 Q

THE INTELLECT AND VALOUR OF
ENGLAND—THOS. JONES BARKER'S LAST
GREAT PICTURE, painted from nature, illustrating, in
four groups:-1. Lord Dundonald offering his invention for
the destruction of Cronstadt and the Russian Forts ; 2. Sir
William Armstrong explaining the peculiar properties and
construction of his famous cannon ; 3. Mr. Cobden proposing
to Lord Palmerston and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
arrange a treaty of commerce with France ; 4. Sir David
Brewster announcing his discovery of the Stereoscope. ON
VIEW this and following days at Mr. R. Croft's Fine Art
Gallery, 28, Old Bond-street. Ten to Six each day. Adr.;
sion, ls. each person.

:9PARTAIN.
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the upper hand beyond all chance of arresting its
progress. There was probably no range of premises
ever built Nhich contained so many approved pre-
cautions fol extinguishing fire as those of Messrs.
Sco', Ths is a discouraging fact for those who go
to g. ;in such precautionary measures,
but, .s is :eless strictly true, as will be seen
y an enumeration of their appliances, which were
,Ala follows:

In a cella. bonf!atlt the depot there was a power-
I force-pamp (aery,tly put into a high state of
iency), applied with water from the Thames
by means eta large underground reservoir. To this
were fitted iron pike, with brigade screws, leading
to the varicas paits of the premises, capable of
throwing strong jets of water, and which were
used by Messrs. S4vell's people. at the commence-
ment of the tonflail-ation until driven away by the
heat and smote fro both pipes and pump. Upon_
the depot rool er two large cisterns, kept con-
stantly full by the "lump. One of them had pipes
always charged, leac.;ng to cocks upon every floor,
where a largeset of fire bu 3kets were kept hanging
ready for use. A third cistern had lately been put
up in the depot yard, contiguous to the east wail of
Cotton's wharf. A communication had been opened
between this tack the'flre main, by agreement
with the company, 4pressly for the purpose of ob
taining a constantf.aul ‘powerful'Supply, whioby
passed into the_eKterustbrongh a metre. But.,witlul

the consent of the company, Messrs. Scovell had in-
troduced a large service pipe into the heart of their
premises, with brigade screws and hose, the water
to be supplied gratuitously. A fourth cistern in
connection with the same main was, moreover,
erected on the drug floor, having large cocks and
fire buckets adjacent, and a fifth cistern existed over
the tea floors with similar appliances. It is not true,
however, as is generally supposed and ias been
stated, that all Messrs. Scovell's wharfs lave been
destroyed. Two of the largest, fortunately, escaped
without any injury. We have been requested to
make this statement, as, if the report were believed
that all the wharfs were destroyed, it woull lead to
a cessation of consignments to the firm which
would be business loss, additional to that thty have
already sustained. A more minute estimate hEs since
yesterday been made of the value of the property
destroyed, and, as nearly as can yet be comptted, it
is stated to be just £2,000,000, with a chanceof its
being within that enormous sum.

; would expand, and the walls must then either keep
them confined or else succumb to the lateral Ares-
, sure. In his opinion such an occurrence would
quite account for the fall of the wall. There was no
' explosive material whatever in that warehouse. In
' reply to the jury, the witness added that the first
engine he sent for was that stationed (as we under-
stood) opposite Morgan's-lane, and that arrived at
about a quarter to five. The first floating engine
arrived at about teu minutes past five, but it so
much overshot its mark in coming alongside the
wharf that it made a very sad bungle of it. The
supply of water from the street mains was always
poor and weak, and throughout they never had any-
thing like an adequate quantity of it.
By Mr. Williams—They had in the wharfs be-
longing to Messrs. Scovell a very large tank along-
side the depot building, and that was kept filled up
at every tide. They had also a fire pump close by
that, which would throw a jet of water 130 feet
high. There were, besides this, two tanks over the
depot, and one over the tea warehouse, which were
also kept filled by the pumps.
Mr. James England, a delivery foreman in the
colonial department of the wharf, said that when
the fire was first discovered he was in the warehouse
where it originated, in the floor immediately above.
Ile saw smoke, and ran down into the lower floor
to ascertain the cause. Here he listened and heard
a crackling noise, and, looking round, saw the smoke
issuing from a pile of jute, and at once gave the
alarm and ran for a bucket of water. He had told
the last witness where the fire was, and said it was
Oh the B floor, but he must have misandeeakod
*alua went to the-]) flat. The B fiat and 114 were
on the same story. Witness at first told him the
fire was in or near the old counting-house, for he
had seen it there. He at once went for more water,
as there was a good supply in the tanks. He got
down with another bucket of water, but then could
not approach the fire, in consequence of the dense
body of smoke. Jute was like hemp, and if it got
damaged with wet or oil it would be likely to heat.
He saw Mr. Braidwood on the premises about 10
minutes before the wall fell. He could assign no
other reason for the wall falling than the tremen-
dous weight on the top floor—the weight of the bales
of cotton. He heard no explosion whatever before
the walls gave way, but only a dead sort of sound,
as of the girders breaking. He was positive that
there was no explosive material whatever in that
warehouse. There were turmeric and jute in some
of the floors. The former was very dry, though if
the bags had been wetted with oil in coming over it
certainly might heat. There was no means of fixing
a hose from the top of the building where the tank
was. There were plenty of hands to assist, though
it was difficult to say who was present. There were
rice and gums on the floor above the fire, but no oil.
Witness never saw a light used in the buildings at
that time of the year. Whenever he had occasion
to use one in the winter he took a proper globe lan-
tern. There was gas on the premises. No smoking
was ever allowed there. Sometimes a foreigner
might come down smoking a cigar, but it was soon
out of his mouth after it was once seen.
James Sargent said he was one of the Fire
Brigade, and arrived at the scene of the conflagra-
tion soon after five o'clock. He saw the wall fall
on Mr. Braidwood, but heard no sound of an ex-
plosion before it fell. His opinion was that the
wall fell because the floorings gave way. The
deceased was serving out brandy at the time of the
accident, and witness was the last man that escaped
from the falling ruin towards the river. Brandy
was absolutely necessary for the men at a fire, from
the heat and constant exertion they had to go
through.
William Metcalf said be was one of the Fire
Brigade, and was cicse to Mr. Braidwood when the
wall fell. As far as he could judge, the falling of
the wall was only caused by the floorings giving
way.

Mr. Denton, shipwright, stated that three or four
minutes before the accident he walked down the
avenue across which the ruins fell. He saw the wall
falling outwards and shouted to the people, " Run !
Run !" Witness thought he knocked down Mr.
Doyle in his own efforts to escape. He turned and
saw the wall fall on Mr. Braidwood in such a mass
that he believed he could never have moved again.
Mr. Richard Henderson, foreman of the Fire
Brigade, said that he was at the fire early, and
became at last perfectly exhausted with his exer-
tions and the heat, and had drawn back to rest
and get a little air, when Mr. Braidwood came
up and asked him how he was getting on. He
replied that he was quite knocked up, and the
deceased gave him a glass of brandy, and told
him to keep aside in the fresh air for a few
minutes and he would soon be ali right again,
Immediately afterwards witness saw the wall come
down and cover Mr. Braid wood. He shouted out
as he saw it going to fall, and thought he would
have escaped.
Mr. Birkbeck, son-in-law of the deceased, said it
was impossible to identify the remains from the
features. He could do so, however, from the re..
mains of the accoutrements, and from the things
found in the pockets. The deceased was 60 years
of age. Witness was brought to the fire after the
wall fell. There was at the time a very inadequate
supply of water, and, in fact, the supply had been
inadequate ever since.
Mr. E. R. Cutler, principal clerk of the town de-
partment of the Westminster Fire-office, said he
went with the deceased, out of mere curiosity, to
see the fire, and was with him when he went round
giving brandy to the men. He was standing close
to him when the explosion took place which killed
the deceased. It was a distinct explosion, like the
report of a cannon going off. It came from the
ground floor or underground floor, burst through a
door, and an immense body of smoke and flames
issued forth. The wall then bulged, lapped over,
and fell on the deceased, some pieces of brick strik-
ing witness on the shoulders and arm. The falling
of the floors would certainly not have made the
noise witness heard ; it was caused by something
explosive. The firemen had several times been di-
recting streams of water on that part of the build-
ing. He was aware that Indian cotton was packed
by hydraulic pressure, but did not know that the
bales would expand and spring up when the bands
were undone. He had seen explosions before, but
could not say that explosions always sent up a
white smoke.

Alfred Tozer, another member of the Fire Bri-
gade, said that just before the accident occurred he
was in the yard pouring water into the loopholes of
the H and G warehouses, when Mr. Braidwood sent
him up to the top of the G warehouse to throw
water over the roof of the other building. While
thus employed he heard a loud explosion from
beneath the H warehouse, and almost instantly a
vast body of white smoke poured from it, and directly
afterwards witness saw that the warehouses
marked 11 and 15 on the plans, with another,
were in flames. By this their communication
with the ground was cut off, and they could not
get down. Witness slid down his hose, and
then " unmarried" it from the part fastened
to the roof, so that four lengths of it
were lost. He then tried to pour water down
into the cellar of the warehouse, but was obliged to
give it up. He told Mr. Braidwood the heat was so
great it was impossible to bear it, and deceased re-
plied, " Well, never mind it ; we cannot help it."
The explosion he had spoken of found vent on the
opposite side of the warehouse to that where the
wall fell. It did not fall till at least a quarter of an
hour after the explosion. He did not believe the
explosion came from the same building as that to
which the ruined wall belonged, but it must have
shaken the walls of all the warehouses. He heard
no explosion after that he had mentioned, and that
certainly could not have caused the fall of the wail
that killed deceased. He cautioned the men that
the explosion was coining before it took place, for
he felt the draught of hot air rushing out. It was
not a loud explosion—nothing at all like that of ar-
tillery. Many of his comrades cautioned him against
going near one spot. They said there was salt-
petre under it, and that it would blow up.
Mr. Henderson was here recalled, and said that
the witness Boyle had cautioned him that in one of
the buildings there was a large quantity of saltpetre
stored, and that they must look out for an explosion;
and the witness Tozer, who was also recalled, stated
that the bursting of a barrel of oil would cause an
explosion. He had seen boiling tallow on fire, and
throwing water on it when in that condition would
make it crack and jump, but not explode, nor make
any noise like an explosion. He had never seen a
large explosion of saltpetre, so could not say whether
the smoke had any particular smell or colour. All
the explosions he heard he believed were owing to
the bursting of casks of oil, which would at once
cause the black smoke and yellow flames to rise.
Saltpetre always burnt with a blue and yellow
flame, and a very white smoke. The flame after this
explosion seemed quite white.
James Hawkbridge, another fireman, also gave
evidence that he thought the fall of the wall was
preceded by an explosion, but his testimony on this
subject was by no means clear.
At the conclusion of this witness's evidence Mr.
Williams said that, if the jury thought it would be
any satisfaction to them, he was prepared to call
Mr. Snooke, the district surveyor, who had Nupe-