The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-18 00:00:00

IRELAND.

AWFUL CATASTROPHE AND LOSS OF

LIFE

DUBLIN, TBURSDA.Y.—Tne. Cork Examiner of
last night contains the following account of an awful
disaster in Killarney, by which a workhouse has
been destroyed by fire, and 27 girls and two women
killed :

" Our local reporter has furnished us with some of the
particulars connected with the burning of one branch
vorkhouse, formerly the College, and the fall of a loft
in another, called the Brewery, which occurred in Kil-
larney on Monday night. The consequences were in-
deed frightful, and Lase plunged the whole district into
gloom: Tho fire burst out about eleven o'clock, when
the cries cf the wretched inmates from the windows, for
assistance to save them from the most terrible of all
deaths were truly appalhng. After ladders bad been
procured, the work of rescue commenced most nobly.
Every man vied with his neighbour in his eller ta to save
life. Protestant and Catholic elergymer, magistrates.
physicians, pdice, end people—all did their duty. But
the result was a reported loss cf three lives. The most
dreadful part of the business, however, remains to be told.
The cry of fire' and the livid glare of the flaw, r, which
fqrced its vv,y ii t) the Brewery (branch lions.) awalie
the sleeping children. A 'arm fir parer t , and
relations in the other house, made distraction and con-
fosion. They beheld the burning pile from the window:'.
In their eagerness to go forth, they rushed madly to the
doors and windows, but they were locked or faitened.
They then sought an unused lei'. for the purpose of
egress; but the rot'en planks gave v ay-28 persona
were instantly killed, and a; many more frightfully
mutilated."
" KILLARNEY, JAN. 15.—This town was last night
the theatre of a melancholy series of ever,ts involving
the destruction cf human life to a very serious and de•
plorable extent. The capacious and beautiful building,
formerly known as • The College, but for alpnths in the
possession of the guardians of the poor as en hospital,
was found to be on fire at ten o'clock. So effectually did
the devouring element grapple with every crevice of the
edifice as to leave it a blackened Nap of ruins in about
two hours after the alarm was first given. It contained
162 patients in the morning,
and this . day leaver, ft
is said, 15 of them missing. No exertion that human
nity could suggest was omitted on the part of the ar-
tisans to save life, and no aid could be more efficient
than that afforded by Mr. M‘Lean, the superintendent
of the lunatic asylum, who placed it body of his most
active and courageous masons at a ladder, saying to one
of the Catholic priests, the Rev. Mr. .11I'Donald—'
believe you have influence here, sir; hold by this ladder
and depend your life on Madden,' and well t.his Madden
did his work. Child afer child descended amid cheers.
On the other side, the south of the building, extra-
ordinary exertions were made on behalf of the poor
sufferers with astonishing success. With the except:iota
of one girl, who fell accidentally, all who could his
reached landed safely. Dr. Murphy, the medical officer'
of the poorhouse, had a narrow escape in his successful
exertion to save a child. The police, under their very
efficient Sub Inspector Dubardieu, were most useful.
The medical men of every grade, and also the
Catholic and Protestant clergy were assiduous in their
attention to the poor sufferers. Meantime, as the
burning advanced, an alarm was raised in a
second auxiliary workhouse, the Brewery, tenanted
by nurses and girls. They could sea the fire dis-
tinctly, both buildings being only a few hundred yards
apart. They became clamorous that the doors of the
dormitories should be unlocked, and as the person in
charge was in the act of doing so, a portion of the floor-
ing on which they stood gave way, hurrying to instant
de truction twenty-seven growing girls and two nurses.
One's heart sicken at so awful a calamity as this has
proved, and God grant it may prole a salutary warning
to all parties who are instrusted with the carrying out of
the P,or-law Act, as to the amount of caution and care
they are bound t) exercise in the re'ection of branch
workhouses. In the present instance, and giving every
credit to the humane body a guardians of this union, I
tear much sufficient care was not observed with regard
to this portion of the Brewery—because, being the
common passage from the dormitnry to the open air, it
should be inferred that a constant yet successive pres-
sure would be upon it, and this ought to have been pro-
vided for. Besides, if one argued from the Lumbers who
suffered from the falling in of this ricketty concern,
including both those who lost their lives and those who
were more or less injured by fractures of limbs, contu-
sions, &c., there could be no extraordinary pressure on
it. I believe this accident, as well as the fire at the
College, was unforeseen, unlocked for—one of those
casualties which might have been prevented, but was
never anticipated."