The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-02 00:00:00

GREAT FIRE IN TOOLEY-STREET.

Yesterday morning, about 8 o'clock, Tooley-street
and Dockhead, Southwark, were the scene of an-
other terrible fire, which up to noon had laid in
ruins property valued at several thousand pounds.
This fire commenced on the premises of Messrs.
Curling and Co., wharfingers, running from Tooley-
street into Dockhead. The buildings were better
known to the public as forming a portion of Davis's
Wharf, while on the western side stood Mark
Brown's Wharf, only separated from the premises
of Messrs. Curling by an extremely narrow cartway.
The building in which the disaster commenced was
200 or 250 feet long by 60 broad, and contained an
immense quantity of goods, including 8,000 bales of
jute, &c. The premises termed Mark Brown's had
over 10,000 casks of tallow and grease deposited in
them, and an immense quantity of cocoa-nut oil.
The eastern end was termed Hartley Wharf, in
which naphtha, oil, turpentine, resin, and other
ignitable articles were stored. The last-named
buildings were erected especially in a peculiar
manner to resist, if possible, the ravages of a fire
breaking out near them.

The discovery appears to have been made by an
officer of the M division, who, according to his own
account, noticed smoke pouring out of some of the
windows facing Mark Brown's warehouses. The
officer at once sent off to the Tooley-street station
of the Fire Brigade, and also to the ruins of the
great fire close by, for proper assistance to come
immediately. During that time men employed on
the wharf and a number of strangers, by great ex-
ertion and no little personal risk, managed to get
out of the warehouses several hundred bales of jute,
bnt that which could not be reached blazed up like
a furnace in full operation. Information was sim-
ultaneously despatched to the Southwark Water
Company's offices, apprising the secretary of the
outbreak, and in the course of three or four minutes
Mr. Quick, jun,, the engineer, assisted by Mr.
Restler, the chief inspector, attended. The fire by
this time had got the complete possession of the
building containing the jute, and, although it was
daylight, the fire rose high, and spread a grand
light over the neighbourhood. Mr. Superintendent
Brandford, and Inspectors Reid, Moore, Turpin,
Mackintosh, Mackenzie, and Mr. Superintendent
Evans, of the Thames police, had a number of boats
moored along the front of the wharves, manned by
nearly 50 constables, to protect the property of the
sufferers, there being not less than 50 men trying
in boats to steal the salvage.
The engines of the parish, under Mr. Squires,
and the London Brigade, under Superintendents
Henderson and Fogo, and Engineers Perryer,
Flinn, Gerard (superintendent of the steam engines)
and Mr. Hodges, the distiller, with his powerful
brigade, were quickly on the spot and at work,
owing to the good supply of water, and the judi-
cious directions given by Mr. Shand, of the firm of
Shand and Mason, and Mr. Birkbeck, a son-in-law
of the late Mr. Braidwood ; the land steam-engine
and the powerful floats were oalled into requisition,
but the fire for hours continued to extend, and
at one period it was feared that it would have
communicated with Mark Brown's Wharf, and
also the extensive premises of Messrs. Hartley,
whose name is so well known in the shipping trade.
Fortunately such was not the case, and by noon the
firemen appeared to have confined the flames to
about 200 feet of the wharf. However, an immense
body of fire still remained under the heaps of jute
&c. Mr. William Hodsoll and Mr. Closs, two gen-
tlemen who are assessors for various fire insurance
companies, vt, ere present during the whole day, and
by their directions the extension of the fire was cut
off in the road leading towards Mark Brown and
Hartley's wharves.
The fire, however, continued to burn throughout
the day, and was not entirely extinguished at 9
o'clock last night. One of the hand engines of the
brewery drew water out of a well on the premises
280 feet deep, and worked from an 18 inch stroke,
and 62-inch barrel. Mr. Charles White, of the
County Fire-office, and Mr. Green, Superintendent
of Mark Brown's warehouse, were indefatigable in
their exertions towards getting the fire subdued.
Messrs. Leach and Neal's private engines, furnished
by Mr. Merryweather, of Long-acre, were also found
to be of great use in getting the fire extinguished.
The jute on the premises having been tightly pressed
upon the bandages, if such they can be called, be-
coming ignited, it expanded to such an extent as to
cause the walls of the wharf to get out of the per-
pendicular, as was the case at Scovell's wharf and
depot, where Mr. Braidwood unfortunately perished.
The police of the M and A (reserve) and Thames
divisions were obliged to be kept on duty until a
late hour.