The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-29 00:00:00

TREMENDOUS FIRE AT OLD

BROMPTON.

The most extensive fire that has occurred near,
the fashionable district now termed Belgravia hap-
pened yesterday morning, in the premises belong-
ing to Messrs. J. and C. W. Todd, builders and
sawmill proprietors; carrying on business at Milner-
street, Old Brompton. The premises were of con-
siderable extent, the sawmills being nearly 80 feet
in width, and over these was a range of workshops;
they formed two stories in height, and were filled
with goods of a most expensive character, including
work for large buildings, some of which was
finished, and some partially so.
The fire was discovered by a police-officer of the
B division, by noticing smoke issuing from the mill
nearest the engine-house. He at once gave an
alarm and sent off for the engines. In the course
of a few minutes the escapes attended, as well as
the engines of the Chelsea parish brigade, -ander
Engineer Pigott, formerly of the London establish-
ment; and the engines of the brigade from Horse-
ferry-road, King-street, Golden-square, Chandos-
street, Baker-street, Farringdon-street, Waterloo-
road, Watling-street, and, nearly a dozen others, ar-
rived in a remarkably brief period considering the
distance they had to travel. These machines were
under the superinteudtace of, Mr. Braidwood, Mr.
StaPles (the foreman of the C district), and engi-
neers Helps, Hamlin, Flynn, Paul Jerrard, Wilkin-
son and others. Before an engine, however, had
time to reach the scene of conflagration a pitiable
sight presented, itself, for men and women were /in-
ning about, bearing in their arms their children,
the whole, with two or three exceptions, being in
their night clothes ; and unfortunately for them, hut
fortunately as far as the fire was concerned, a most
abundant supply of the Chelsea Company's water
was procured, which caused the poor creatures to
have to wade ankle deep through it until some
of the neighbours could be aroused to afford
them shelter. Fortunately, owing to the supply
of water, not a moment was lost in setting the
engines into full play, but by that time a range
of workshops, independent of the sawmills
and the timber-yard, nearly 200 feet long, filled with
lofty stacks of deals and other timbers, presented a
sheet of flame, and it would be no exaggeration to
say that- a larger or fiercer body of fire has not been
seen in the same locality for many years. The mills
and timber-yard with the stores ran between
Princes-street and Ilalsey-street, and the flames
commenced attacking with full vigour the houses
in each street, and large pieces of wood in a
thorough state of ignition rose some hundred feet
into the air, and being drifted by the high wind
which prevailed at the time, fell upon the tops of
houses a long distance off, firing almost simultane-
ously upwards of a dozen houses in the streets before
alluded to ; and the occupiers of many of a greater
distance, in order to save their premises, were com-
pelled to pour buckets of-water upon ieir habita-
tions to keep them from becoming ignited.
Under the superintendence of Mr. Braid wood and
the other officials present, the engines were placed
round the immense area of fire, and were at once
set to work from the most commanding positions,
but so great was the force of water that after the
engines had been used for a very brief period the
stand-pipes of the machines were placed in the
plugs, and sufficient water was obtained, that with-
out manual labour, although the flames were rising
probably 200 feet over the surrounding houses, the
pipes were enabled to throw some tons weight of
the antagonistic element upon the conflagration,
equal in quantity, according to what one of the fire-
men stated, to what could have been discharged by
the improved new steam land-engine. Notwith-
standing the work of devastation continued, and
although St. Paul's, the Monument on Fish-street-
hill, the Houses of Parliament, Lambeth Palace,
Chelsea Hospital, and other buildings in the
metropolis, were brought out in bold relief,
the sight failed in drawing—which is seldom the
case at a London fire—more than probably a
couple of hundred spectators to the spot; conse-
quently the police, who were under Mr. Superin-
tendent Gibbs, had for once a very light duty to
perform, and the firemen were not at all incon-
venienced by a crowd. By three o'clock the con-
flagration might be said to have been at its height,
and as the timbers fell in the yard, all placed
under wooden sheds, they made a noise like the
discharge of a volley of musketry or cannon, and
the crackling noise occasioned by the splitting
asunder of the windows of 12 or 14 houses added
greatly to the terror existing amongst the neigh-
bours, not only of Princes-street, Halsey-street, and
Milner-street, but of several streets a long dis-
tance off.

The firemen, although exposed to the greatest
danger, kept to their posts, but several hours elapsed
before the least impression could be made upon the
violence of the fire, and it was at least three hours
before it showed any signs of succumbing beneath
the great body of water thrown upon it, and not
before the sawmills and workshops of Messrs. Todd,
together with two thirds of the timber-yard, nearly
200 feet in length, were destroyed. The total loss
must amount to several thousand pounds sterling.