The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-26 00:00:00

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE
AT LIVERPOOL.

SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE.
FRIDAY, QUARTER PAST TEN O'CLOCK.
(From the Second Edition of the Liverpool Mercury.)
It is with feelings of the most painful nature that
we lay before our readers some particulars of one of
the most, if not the most, calamitous and devastating
conflagrations that has occurred in this town for a
considerable number of years, whether we regard its
extent, the rapidity with which it spread, the destruc-
tion of property, or the loss of human life. This
morning, about three o'clock, information reached the
fire-police station that a cooper's shed, in Wood-street
North, was in flames. Immediately the engines were
dispatched, and Mr. Whitty and Mr. Hewitt, with a
number of the fire police, were speedily on the spot.
At that time, however, the fire hadgained considerable
progress, aided'as it was by a strong breeze from the
north-west. The shed in which the fire originated was
situated amidst 'a number of other sheds of slender con-
struction, principally made of wood, and containing
vast quantities of materials easily of ignition. These
. blazed furiously for some time, illuminating the whole
town, and creating considerable alarm in the minds of
, • persons at a great distance from the Eocene of the de-
vouring element. The flames were carried from
Wood-street North, to the back of some large ware-
houses, principally stowed with cotton, and these
speedily were enveloped in clouds of smoke, which
but too truly told that the work of destruCtion was
going on within.. In a very short time the flames
burst forth with awful fury, warehouse after ware-
house was ignited, and ultimately the whOle of the
warehouses on one side of Formby-street were in a
blaze. The spectacle was truly grand, yet awful, and
then it was perceived that all attempts to save the
property then in flames was useless. The attention
of the firemen was therefore directed to the north
side of Formby-street, with a view of saving some of
the fine warehouses there, but the street being very
narrow, and the wind blowing very high, the suc-
cessive and well-directed efforts of the fire-police
were but a short time of any avail. The north side,
in its turn, was soon a prey to the devouring fire, and,
like the rest, the warehouses then were soon razed to
the ground. •
• The May-or and Mr. Rushton were early on the
spot, and aided the officers of police in their arduous
duties. A number of men from the Redwing (her
„ Majesty's steamer), attended, and, under the direction
of Mr. LAdd, assisted in supplying the engines with
water. Water was obtained in great abundance from
• the Waterloo Dock, but, in consequence of the height
. of the walls, and no aperture being made in them, it
, required a great force to raise it. Mr. Highton, Go-
vernor of the Borough Gaol, was -most actively en-
gaged in every place where he could make his
ser-
vices of any avail. Messrs. Superintendents Leverett,
Qute.k, and M‘Donald were early in attendance, and,
by their judicious arrangements, cleared the way for
'ILI /II „the uninterrupted exertions of the firemen. No person
, who_ attended the fire could for a moment doubt the
efficiency and excellency of our fire brigade and police
,establishment. Mr. Whitty placed himself in the most
imminent danger, being entirely absorbed with an
evident anxiety to save property and prevent injury
to life.
Much, however, as we regret the immense loss of
prainsoperty, the most painful part of our task yet re-
m ;itis to record the death of several indivi-
duals. One of them was named Hodgson, officer
347, who bore a most excellent character in the force,
and
many of our readers may recollect him when
they are told that his beat was in Castle-street, oppo-
site the coach-stands. About half-past six, he, along
with officers Tuck and Bates, were holding their
branches opposite a warehouse, near the top of
Formby-street • Tuck said to the men, " That wall
is going to fall." They stood but for a moment or
two, when Hodgson walked up the street. A large
bale of burning cotton fell into the street ; Hodgson
a9Pped to dash it out, as it was blinding all around,
and he had just completed his task when the wall
• . fell with a tremendous crash, burying Hodgson in
the ruins. Tuck at the instant seized hold of Bates,
Pulled him away, and by the greatest miracle almost
both escaped. unhurt, the branch being knocked out
• of Tuck's hand by part of the wall, as it fell. Lower
down the street, the wall of Mr. Gray's yard gave
- way, just as three or four labourers were removing
some timber, and they were buried in the ruins. In-
Spector Ridings was also at this spot, and by the
falling of the wall, had his leg broken. He was
taken up by the men, and c-inveyed to the Northern
-Hospital, az were also several other men, who were
Severely injured, but the number we cannot at pre-
! sent learn. The fire, at the time we are writing, is
still raging with intense fury.
eteel ,
ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.
sg,Al
ELEVEN O'CLOCK.
We have the painful duty to record a calamity
L'AiNlieh, whether as regards the loss of life or of pro-
ir/il:ir,l'eacrt is calculated to excite the most painful feelings
,eaflierreseitnit moment, and will form a sorrowful page
sift ;;;ber
over many
still ragingthe annals of the town. As the fire is
• to give, acres of ground, it is impossi-
tron en
• ' as Yet, a correct account of the destruc-
maw, much less in detail ; but we shall sup-
" 1 throughout p y roughout the day, in succeeding editions, such
particulars as we
The fire originated
00(1 street enabled to gat er.
w_in Crompton-street, formerly
docks. , at the north end of the town near the
The three principal streets affected—namely,
Crom
tontree, Formby-street, and Neptune-street,
Nairnnearly opposite the Borough Gaol, run east and
west,, between Great Howard-street (in which the
p_r)son stands) and •Waterloo-road, close to the docks.
T_ he three streets and their boundaries, east and west,
,e..uPy an area of from six to seven acres, and the whole
tprat•space is even now in, with few exceptions, a mass
°t e. It appears that at three o'clock precisely, a
watch It
named Barnard Coyle, who was employed
to guard the premises of Iklr. Pennington, bone
grind and drysalter during the night, found
P; fire hid broken out hi the engine-house,
e having been kept in all
night to keep
police-
u the steam. He immediately gave the alarm to
.uoofficer No. 24, who exerted himself to the ut-
an most, but before the engines could be brought up
immense quantity of warehouses and three yards
nature
Were on fire in Crompton-street. The combustible
strop g of the premises was such, together with a
breeze from the north-west, that Mrs. Isaac's
°" nd colour store soon took fire, as well as many
gall crowded workshops of mill-wrights, smiths, &c.,
I,iipoole's"tilat immediate locality. The fire next got to
bonded cotton sheds, in Great Howard-
street, and finally swept to Formby-street. The
t the wal ehouses in that street were successively
n
signited, and are burnt to the ground, with a vast de-
property, and, we lament to say, several
ction of
Jives.
The fire-police officer, Samuel Hodgson, of
. 0. 1 engine, was killed and crushed in the ruins of
one of the walls. Two of the engines were also
smashed, and a considerable number of the firemen
and others were killed. On calling at the Northern
following
at ten o'clock, we were informed that the
was the state of the parties who had been
removed there :—John Martin and Luke Smith, dead;
lured
°lie man dying; Robert Black, skull extensively frac-
, not expected to recover; Superintendent Rid-
g+, of of the police, compound fracture of the leg; and
48 or 20 more or less dangerously hurt. Many other
cand ases of a minor nature have been sent to the hospital,
dischirged; after having their hurts examined and
,t`ressed. Several men were carried to the hospital
4.,,uadly burnt or hurt, some of them mortally. From eight
;' half-past nine o'clock the fire in Formby-street, and
in the adjoining cotton sheds (Poole's) in Great Howard-
,,,r,''treet, raged with an intensity that heated the at-
' 'uosphere to a great distance round. Great exertions
bWere made to save the top houses, in Formby-street,
ut those on the north side, dwelling-houses caught
the chiefly by the intensity of the fire just below of
: burning warehouses, the ruins, and burning ma-
ulsiniety
Ler of which, were piled to the height of eighty to
n
feet—throwing up immense volumes of flame
smoke. From time to time the high walls of the
Warehouses fell with a thundering crash, and shortly
tafter nine o'clock one man was killed outright by the
aillring materials. The wall of a large warehouse in
omhy-street, which had been on fire some time, and
,badreached, with the cotton within, almost a white
soneat, at length fell upon some
of the sheds on the
South in
Neptune-street, and the consequence in a
short time was, that the whole range of sheds at the
part of that street, used for bonding cotton and as
,e°•3,Perages, were ignited. A great quantity of staves,
l'°Jes, hoops, &c., were carried out, before and after
the ignition, to the neighbouring vacant ground.
The flames during the whole of the fire were
throughout most intense, and at intervals terrific.
They,.. rose, on some occasions, apparently to the height
°' 150 feet, or even higher. The heat and sparks
. Were such that the eyes of the parties near were so
arch affected that they were obliged frequently to
n away and procure water to wash before they
Could distinctly see. The whole of the police, in-
cluding Mr. Whitty, head constable, and Mr. Hewitt,
the fire-police, were so covered' with dust, mud,
water, flour, and other materials, and their faces so
their most intimate acquaintances. At ten o'clock,
the sheds and cooperages in Neptune-street, some of
:tem new buildings and full of goods, were in a
~,,-1-4te of rapid-combustion, and little of the property
I,ii2Uld be saved from them. There was a report
t about 30 individuals connected with the engines
'ad Perished; but this will, we hope, be found to be
lossaggrated At resent no correct account
of the of life can be obtained ; and even in the
end, the probability is, that some of, the bodies, if
found at all, will be so burnt and calcined that they
may not be recognised. One of the fire-police,
John
~4togers, (No. 215) was close to poor Hodgson, of
•sle No. 1, when he was struck down by the ruins
killed on the spot. The hose was cut off, as if by
Chet, by the materials ; and the piece near the

pipe (which.Hodgson held, and which is buried with
him), was scorched to the hardness of bone.
Amongst the warehouses, sheds, &c., burned down,
were Poole's two sheds (before noticed) in Great
Howard-street, both filled with cotton, the masses of
which, in a burning state, and closely compacted, re-
sembled immense- broken rocks in a state of red heat
at every interstice. In Formby-street there were five
warehouses belonging to Mr. Maw, two to Mr. J. H.
Rayner, and others belonging to Mr. H. Horseley and
Messrs. 'Waterhouse and Son. _ln one, of the ware-
houses there was said to be a quantity of saltpetre,
and a kind of explosion in the . falling of one of the
walls favoured the supposition. Amidst the destruc-
tion in Neptune-street, besides the cotton sheds, were
the cooperages and timber-yards of Messrs. Chapman
and Dean, and Lythoe. The vacant ground between .
the prison and the canal bridge, on the east side of the
street, was covered with staves, hoops, felloes, &c.,
saved from the yards and sheds ; but the greater. part
of the property, as well as the buildings, were com-
pletely dPstroyed. It is stated, but we know not as
yet with What accuracy, that the cotton destroyed
amounted to about 35,000 bales. Cotton, we may
state, formed the great bulk of the property destroyed.
ACCOUNT 01? THE BUILDINGS ANI)
PROPERTY DESTROYED.
The following is, as near as we can ascertain, a
statement of the buildings destroyed, and the goods
supposed to be destroyed :
Rayner's A 309, B 315 ; ditto, C 309, D 315 ;
Maw's 4 warehouses, no numbers ; Grey's E 228;
Grey's C 229 ; Taylor's 233; Rogers's 256, two;
Rayner's shed, 252 ; Gregson's 319, two ; Horsley's
two sheds; M'Knight's one ditto ; Poole's two sheds ;
Taylor's cooperages and other timber yards. The
whole is assessed at an annual value of 3,5001. The
value of the buildings, exclusive of the land, probably
from 35,0001. to 40,0001. The property which. they
contain may be estimated at the value of 300,000/. to
400,0001. The principal contents are cotton, turpen-
tine, flour, &c.

The brokers can add up to 20,000 bales ; but there
must be more. The following is an estimate :
£250,000 in cotton.
150,000 in other goods.
35,000 in buildings.

£435,000

The following is a correct statement of the build-
ings burnt, for which we are indebted to the courtesy
of Mr. Samuel Hohne, who was for a long period on
the spot :-
4 warehouses (Gray's) North. Burnt.
1 ditto (Taylor's) do. do..
2 ditto (Rayner's) do. , do.
2 ditto (Poole's) do. do.
4 ditto (Maw's) South. do.
1 ditto (Roger's) " fire proof," now on fire.
1 ditto (Rayner's) Burnt.
1 shed (Rayner's) do.
2 sheds (Horsley's) Neptune-street, now
almost burnt
1 shed (Mr. Knight's) west of the above, on fire.
Taylor's cooperage
Molyneux's timber-yard } Burnt.
Cart-houses, stables, a row of about sixteen houses,
and a large mass of property of various descriptions.
Seventeen men have been carried to the hospital,
one of whom is dead, and three more supposed to be
dying, and, probably, eighteen to twenty more are
buried under the burning piles, together with one of
the engines.
Mr. Holme states it as his opinion that the value of
the buildings alone which are burnt will exceed
30,000/. ; and we have been informed by several
brokers on 'Change that the quantity of cotton alone
which has been destroyed exceeds 40,000 bales,
together with an immense quantity of other foreign
and colonial produce.
(From the Fifth Edition of the Liverpool Standard.)
STANDARD-OFFICE, HALF-PAST Two O'CLOCK.
We have again visited the scene of the conflagration,
and are happy to state that the flames are so far sub-
dued by the falling materials, and the exertions of the
firemen in the outskirts, that the destruction will in
all probability be confined to the buildings already
noticed; the goods in which (a comparatively trifling
quantity being got out) are doomed to entire de-
struction.
We have just taken a tour of the whole area. In
Formby-street the row of dwelling-houses at the top
on Pie north side, which had before ignited, were in
a blaze all through, reaching thefloors and roof of the
lodging-house at the corner of that street and Great
Howard-street. The house just opposite (also at the
corner) will probably be saved. The furniture had
been removed. The yard and brick-field opposite to
Poole's cotton sheds, on the -other side of the street
were strewed with bags and heaps of loose cotton,
bags of flour, furniture, &c. The lodging-house
became in flames at about a quarter-past twelve
o'clock. The interior of Poole's sheds was still
when we left a mass of burning cotton, like
red-hot rocks; and the outer wall was in 30 pre-
carious a state from the floor, &c., being burnt,
that the police were active in keeping parties off,
lest some further fatal accident might take place. The
scene in passing down Crompton-street (the northern
boundary of the fire) was painfully interesting. The
site of the yards, smithies, and other workshops, where
the fire had originated, still enclosed by a wall on the
north, presented a large area of burning materials and
ruins,, not, however, rising to any great height in that
quarter. The remains of the bone grinding steam
engine with its small chimney ; the chimney of an-
other small engine to the eastward of it ; heaps of
paint that had been in barrels burnt out, and leaving
only a few of the iron hoops, formed the foreground
of the picture from this point, and other materials.
More behind were two " burning mountains" of
cotton, one on the site of Dennistown's (called
Rayner's) large warehouse, and the other in Taylor's.
That on the west side was about 60 to 70 feet in
height, burning and flaming all over, and resembling
a perfect volcano previous to or after the subsiding of
an eruption. The mill where the fire originated was
Mr. Peniston's. The adjoining paintworks which
were ignited belonged to Mrs. Isaac. From the door
of a shed a little lower down, and the whole of which
had interiorly fallen, a most imposing view of the
general conflagration was obtained. Even here,'
though to windward, the heat was very great. ,
Indeed the whiffs or gusts of hot air that passed
along all the neighbouring streets were at times al-
most stifling, being 6s hot as the breath of a furnace,
and surcharged withal with motes, dust, and sparks,
exceedingly injurious to the eyes. Some high por-
tions of the ruins rose in majestic isolation behind,
and had a truly romantic appearance. Sudlow's free
cotton-shed, in the same line a little below, was saved,
as were the buildings (boat-builders, &c.) facing Wa-
terloo-road on the west. We passed up Neptune-.
street—the southern boundary of the fire ; the sheds
at the top, on the north side—with the exception of
the corner one just opposite the Borough Gaol—were
all burnt out. Some staves, hoops, &c., were saved
from the cooperages and yards above, but a great deal
of cotton in other sheds was consumed, many of the
bags retaining their shape though red hot ; and re-
duced to tinder. The back or north wall of a ware-
house lower down had fallen down from the effects of

the fire, so that it could be seen through to " the
burning mountains "of cotton on the north. Out of
this warehouse a great quantity of rice, in bags, was
lowered and taken away in carts, and great part of
this property will doubtless be saved.
A fireproof warehouse near the bottom of Formby-
street, stood the effects of the flames surprisingly. It
closely adjoined one of those warehouses to the east,
the contents of which formed the larger " Vesuvius."
Men were employed in hoisting buckets of water into
it to cool the walls, which, however, were by no means
so hot as might be expected. The wall of the ad-
joining warehouse burned down, against the gable
end of this fireproof building, still stands, and forms
a sort of protection from ignition by the immense
pile of red hot cotton still blazing against it. Much
damage is done to the premises of Messrs. Grayson
and Bannister, shipwrights and smiths, and to those
of other smiths, &c., a little lower down. Men are
employed carrying the timber and other cchnbustibles
out of Messrs. G. and B.'s. One shed, between two
other sheds which have ignited, has not taken fire, and
is, we learn, filled with "guano" manure'
In Formb-street there were also wareliouses known
as " Gray's, in which it is stated, there were 24,000
bales of cotton.

In taking the rice out of " Sudlow's" a bag fell
upon the head of a man in one of the carts, and con-
siderably stunned and injured him. He, however,
walked away to obtain rest at a neighbouring house.
It was at first thought that he was killed, but he hap-
pily escaped without any bones being broken. Se-
veral other and more serious accidents took place in
various parts within the site of the fire, besides the
fatalities before referred to. It is, therefore, quite
impossible to give the precise number of unfortunate
men killed or injured. This cannot, indeed, be ascer-
tained for some days; for,' though the missing police
may be reckoned, there were some few others who
were strangers who were hurt or killed, of whom no
account can yet be supplied. The rumours abroad on
this point are, we feel assured, as before stated, much
exaggerated.
We have not yet been enabled to ascertain the re-
lative amounts of insurance effected, but we fear the
loss to individuals will be very great and disastrous.
LATEST INFORMATION FROM THE FIRE.

The fire, we should think, when at its height, which
was from five to six o'clock in the morning, must have
been discernible for miles round. From the Cheshire
shores of the Mersey the appearance was terrific.
Seen through the rigging of the shipping in Prince's
and Waterloo Docks, it appeared, upon a first view,
that these docks were themselves, on fire; and on
looking closer, the inhabitants .of Seacombe, Egre-
mont, and New Brighton.:--many of them our leading
merchants—imagined from the extent of ground
covered, that the destruction extended over a great
1 ertbn bf the north part of the town, the extensive