The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-11-19 00:00:00

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN LORD-STREET.

On Friday, a few minutes after eight o'clock, the large hat
shop of Messrs. Birt and Co., on the south side of Lord-
street, was discovered to be on fire, by the light showing
through the chinks of the door and window. The shop had
been closed at eight o'clock, and all then appeared to be safe.
The alarm was immediately given, and in a few minutes two
of the engines of the fire establishment were on the ground.
Previously to their arrival, however, some parties, in their
indiscreet zeel, had taken off the shutters and opened the
door, by which, from the admission of the air, the combustion
was greatly increased ; otherwise, in all probability, the des-
truction of property would not have been nearly so great.
The water being almost immediately put on after the arrival
of the engines, the firemen, ably directed, applied themselves
vigorously to the work of extinguishing the flames, which,
however, the moment the shop was opened in front, became
intense, running round, and filling the whole shop with a
rapidity like the ignition and (as several gentlemen described
it) explosion of gunpowder.
The flames burst out from the whole frontal, with intense
heat, and rose to a great height, blackening the wall of the
building, which is four stories high, as well as the walls of
those on each side, and igniting the frames and breaking the
glass of the windows in the story above. The fine plate glass
of the window of the shop, consisting of ten immense plates,
was, of course, destroyed, and curiously shivered, so as to
resemble ice in a thawing state. The handsome mahogany
frames, brass rails, stands, and other valuable fittings, also
fell a prey to the destructive element.
The shop is large and lofty, and the fire was fed by the nu-
merous shelves for hats all round and their contents, the
counters, and the hat boxes, which are thin and combustible,
the paper, &c. In about twenty minutes, such were the ex-
ertions of the firemen, the flames were entirely subdued.
But for their prompt presence and exertions, the amount of
property that might have been destroyed is incalculable, the
whole range of buildings been endangered.
As it was impossible to save the contents of the shop—a
few caps in two drawers in the centre being all that was left
undestroyed. Many of the hats were drawn down from the
shelves by the force of the water from the pipes, others were
burnt, and the shop in the brief space rioted was, it might be
said, entirely gutted of its contents and fittings by the devas-
tasing element, nothing being left but some slender charred
remains of the perpindicular frame-work that had supported
the shelves. The heat within continued for some time to be
great. We have not heard the probable amount of property
destroyed ; but understand that insurance had been effected
at the Caledonian Fire Office.

The fire, it is said, originated from a stove, in the east side
of the shop, which had been left burning, and from which no
accident was anticipated. The greatest order and regularity
prevailed amongst the firemen and the police, and soon after
the fire the crowd dispersed.