The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-31 00:00:00

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

( From the Manchester Guardian.)
We regret to record the occurrence of a serious fire, in its
consequences occasioning the loss of at least three, but pro-
bably of four or five lives, and destructive of property to the
amount of several thousand pounds; besides throwing out of
employ, for a short time at least, many workpeople of both
sexes. This alarming and fatal fire was discovered in what
is called '`The Old Mill" of Messrs. Charles Macintosh and

.he well-known manufacturers of india-rubber water-

proof and airproof cloth, which is situated on the westerly
side of Cambridge-street, Chorltou-on-Medlock, exactly op-

posite to the large cotton mills on the other side of the street,
called the Chorlton Mills, belonging to Messrs. Birley and
Co. cotton spinners, &c., and divided only by the river from
the site of the " Medlock 'Mills" of 'Messrs. Littlewood and
Co., which were burned down in January, 1801, ►wen 28
persons perished in the flames. The premises of Mess's.
Macintosh and co. cover, a spacious area of ground; the
buildings which consist of, the new mill, in which upwards
4,400 hands, chiefly females, are employed, and which has
not suffered from the fire. About fifty yards from this build-
ing, and one end abutting on the south bank of the Medlock,

stands the old mill, a smaller edifice, which was originally
about 54feet in length by about 40 feet wide, all fireproof,
and internally consisting of seven stories (numbered from one
to seven inclusive,) the southern end having the engine-
house. in the basement story, or No. 1 floor. Subsequently,
however, an additiOn was made to that end of a building,
about 3.5 feet in length, used for the purpose of -a drying
stove; but this was not of fireproof construction. It was not
quite so high as the remainder of the mill, and; instead of
being divided into six or seven doors, had only three divi-
sions, being filled with rafters for the suspending of the
pieces of waterproofed cloth. The whole of the building,
then, at the time of the fire, was about 90. feet in length,
plane' to Cambridge-street, and about 42 feet in width.
At a quarter before twelve o'clock, on Saturday night, a
man named Patrick Shelton, who was stationed to watch
the yard,—a fence having been removed during some alters-
tions,—observed a light in the No. 6 floor, (the uppermost.

.
, in
but one,) on the western side of building the centre
compartment, in a small room (A) used as a work Shop by the
mechanics. He immediately sprung his rattle, giving the
alarm. to two private watchmen of ;Messrs. Birley amiJ.M.,
inside the cotton mills on the other side of Cambridge-street,
and to their outside watchman. illr. Gaskell, the manager
of the cotton mills, and other persons in the employ of the
two firms, who reside in the immediate neighbourhood, were

called up: the large bell of the cotton mill was rung; and, at
first, efforts were made to extinguish the flames by means of
the force pump and hose-pipes kept on the premises for the:purr
pose, and worked by,one of the steam-engines of the Choriton
mills.' These attempts failed, as will he seen by the.evidence
adduced at the ingutist; and information having in the mean-
time been transmitted to the police yard, and received there
about half-past twelve o'clock, Mr. Hose, superintendent ot•
the police fire department, and a body of firemen, imme-
diately set out thence with the Niagara,engirie, promptly
followed by the remat.oder of the fire police with the Water

Witch. By this time.the Litres had communicated from the
small room in which they were first seen, through a dour on
the sixth floor to the drying-stove; and a bystauder.has de-
scribed to us the appearance Of the flames rushing, as reSem-
tiling a flash of lightning from the top to the bottom of this
building; this appearance being doubtless produced by the
ignition of the 'highly inflammable vapour arising from the
naptha, or spirit of coal tar, used for making the solution of
caoutehouc with which the cloth is made waterproof. 'With
these inflammable materials (fur the stove was filled with
pieces of cloth and garments,) affording fresh fuel to the
flames, it is not at all surprising that they should rage with
great fury, tilt the whole of the drying-stove (the express use
of which-was the " purifying" of the water-proofed cloth, by
means of heat conveyed i 4 steam-pipes from the lowest to the
highest part of the stove) was completely gutted. Thence
by the doors of communication, with theteutral compartment

of the building, the limes were spreading thither when the
police firemen arrived; and accordingly their first efforts
were directed to prevent the extension of the flames in that
direction, to do which the hose and branch from the Niagara

were conveyed up the staircase to the sixth floor; it treiug
found impossible, from the great heat and dense smoke, to
penetrate with them into the seventh floor, to which the fite
had ascended from the sixth rbom. The branch and hose

from the Water 11-itch engine were hoisted up to the fifth
floor, and there taken in at the window; and the men were
beg.inning to play, when an iron cistern in the room No. 5,
containing probably about 1000 lbs. weight of the water-
proofing material, exploded with a noise louder than that of
a large piece of artillery, and which was heard distinctly at
Greertheys and other places at some distance. It appears
that there was a communication from this cistern 'in No. 5
room, through No. G into No. 7, by means of pipes, proeided
with valves. The fire was raging in N 0.7 ; butthe engineer,
knowing that the valves were shut, was not apprehensive of
any communication from above • with the cistern. Unfortu-
nately, a man-hole had been left open at one end of the
cistern, for the purpose of cleaning it; and the air rushing
through this aperture found its way into the pipes, and these
becoming red hot from the fire above, it is supposed the va-
pour became ignited in the 'cistern, and, exploding the in-
flammebte gas generated from the spirituous mixture at the
bottom, caused the bursting of the vessel, which was torn open
from torato bottom, along the line of a course of rivets, in the
centre of a plate of the best iron. The explosion, which
drove out all the windows on that floor, and, amongst other
persons then in the room, blew off the hat of Mr. Jeseph
Ewart, occurred probably about one o'clock; and long be-
fore that time the roof and part of the walls of the (frying-
stove had fallen in, and a report instantly atose that some
one was • killed thereby; but how far this supposition was
well founded, we have not been able to ascertain. The fire-
men continued in this room, playing on the blazing liquid
that covered the floor, till all the flame was extinguished,
and then they conveyed the branch thr6ugh a hole in the
ceiling, and endeavoured to extiuguish the fire in the two
uppermost fleois of the buildirg.
Shortly before the fallings in of the roof and walls of the
drying stove, Mr. Fletcher, the foreman of the mechanics Of
Messrs. Macintosh and Co., observed eight of the firemen
.
with one of the engines stationed ina'situation considera-
ble danger, near one of the brickwork pillars of that
ing; and he had scarcely called-Ili. Rose's attention to it,
and thus had the men removed, when the pillar fell, and
covered the place where they had been standing with brickS,
pipes, beams, and rubbish.
• Some time after the explosion in No. the flames being
raging in No. 7 at a furious rate, as may be imagined from-
the circumstance that .there, Was nes less than 7,000 lbs. of
the waterproofing 'material on this-floor, they received fresh
fuel from the following. circumstance: In this room was a
large iron cylindrical cistern, about ten feet, in length, and
foul feet and a half in diameter, weighing from three to three
and a half tons, and containing a large quantity of naphtha.
This cistern was placed on a bed, consisting of two piers of
bricks, so ilk to stand about two and a hell feet from the floor.
The flames melting the leaden pipes of the cistern, the liquor
ran upon the floor, rind mixieg with the•caoutelioue, &c.,
caused the bursting forth of an immense volume of flame.
Some time after this, at from a smarter to halfspast.two
o'clock, the engineer of Macintosh and Co. suddenly started
the engine of the waterptOof inill, ono- of fifty horse's' power,
for ahe purpose; as we understand,- of workingAhe force-
pump; but, in the hurry and confusion of the. moment, he
forgot to throw out of Beer aline of vertical shafting which
ran up the wall to' the highest story, very near the cistern.
As the two upperrrnost rooms were at that time enveloped in
flaMee, the sseering no doubt inuch expanded by heat, and
probably encumbered by fallen 'machinery, beams, and pipes,
the effect of setting the shafting in motion-was most disas-
trous. The whole building begin to shake in' the most
alarming- manner. Several persons in the upper rooms
felt- thesfloors, as they desCritie,' shaking under them, and
Mr. Rose hastily ran from Nrn 6, calling, in his way, to the
firemen in various .rooms to make for the staircase, as there
was danger of -the building faith:era and, when he reached
the bottom, he hastened, with a person named Wray, who is
in the service of Macintosh and Co,, to the engineers. They
found, in the engine-houee, the head engineer and two others;
and Mr. Rose earnestly requested them to stop the engine,
which was done, after a short delay; and almost immediately
afterwards the arge cylindrical cistern above described was
distinctly heard falling upon and through the floor of No. 7,
and next through that of No. 6, .and every lower floor suc-
cessively, to tile tiottom, carrying with it, at the same time,
the wall which separated "the fireproof building from the
stove. Mr Fletcher, on first hearing the noise, -rushed
towards a strung wall in the bay of the engine-house window,
and near the door; and, the place tieing quite dark, he
called to the others to make their escape. As they. passed
hint, he pulled them forward to the door-way. Mr. Rose was
the last, or last but one; and Fletcher pulled him with such
force as to bring him down upon his face; and Abut that
moment, the cistern broke the ceiling into the engine-house,
and part of the bricks and rubbish fell over Mr. Rose, and
held him down. The dust, heat, and smoke, from the
rubbish, were so stifling, thats with his right hand, Mr. Rose
broke a pane of glass in the window to obtain air; and, at
that moment, some one, escaping, stepped on his head, and
he exclaimed, " For God's sake, keep off my head." In a
short time he succeeded in extricating hiruselt from the mass
of rubbish which had fallen chiefly on his right side; and,
with no greater injuries than some severe bruises and cone
tusions on various parts of hiS limbs and body, and his fingers
being lacerated by the broken glass, he merle his escape.
Each floor in the central part of the building in which this
disaster occurred, was composed of four bass or arches, sup-
ported on three large-iron beams, running longitudinally
along the building. As the cistern iu its fall had brought
down the centre beam, and the two middle arches of each
floor from the top downwards, leaving only those portions of
each floor nearest the outer wails, and as it was known that
a number of firemen and other persons were in various rooms
on the different floors, considerable apprehensions prevailed
that several of these had been borne down by the' ponderous
cistern, or hail been swept down by the machinery, &c.,
which it dragged after it. These apprehensions were but too
speedily and fully realised.
Some time before the starting of the steam-engine, a man
named James Watson, who was what is, called assistant
branch-man to the first company of firemen, was stationed
in the No. 6 room, together with several other firemen, in-
cluding one named Henry Pollitt, When the steam-engine
was started, one of the firemen, feeling the floor of the room
shake under him,
.exclaimed to Watsou, " Oh, James, .it's
like to be all up with us." He hastened towards the stair-.
case, end.thus was saved from the fate of at least one of his
companions; for the crash came immediately afterwards,
and the beam struck down Pollitt and Watson with one
blow. They were within half a yard of each. other,
Watson letting the branch, and Pollitt acting ars attend-
ant branch-man, when they were struck. Watson, as
he was failing, seized Pollitt's coat-shirt; but the beam sepa-
rated them, otherwise Pollitt must have shared Watson's
fate. Pollitt then either fell or jumped through the chasm
upon the floor below, and became insensible; some portion
of the falling floor and machinery came upon him, and his
right arm and leg were much crushed, and his body strained
and shaken by the rubbish. When he recovered, he found
himself in the situation described; and he had no doubt that
Watsun, not being able to recover himself, had fallen through
the chasm in the floors to the bottom. As soon as he could
be got out, Fiat was conveyed to the Infirmary, where he
still lies; but we are glad to hear that he is doing well, and
is likely soon to recover.
Another person, a salesman, named Hugh Faulkner, re-
siding in Cambridge-street, but in no way connected with
the premises, was assisting a young man in the employ of
Messrs. Macintosh and Co., named Newsarn, 'to pull the
waterproof cloths from the rollers in No. 3; a work of some
personal inconvenience, for in that room the cloths had ac-
quired a considerable degree of heat,—when in order to ob-
tain a little air, one of them opened four squares on a swivel,
in the middle of a window; and immediately on the air
entering the cloth burst into flames, and. Faulkner, finding
himself almost enveloped, rushed to the window, and leaped
out. Just as he hail got to it, being without his coat, his
calico shirt sleeves caught fire, and his trowers, which were
of kerseytnere, also took 'fire; by which his•arrus, back, and
and the back part of his legs and thighs, were severely and
extensively burned. He fell without suffering further injury
than some bruises on his right hand, and severe contusions
ahaut his body. He wasimtnediately taken tlis and we be-
lieve, was conveyed to the house of Mr. James Muir, surgeon',
Medlock-street, I'luhine, who was at home, and was told that
Faulkner had been very severely hurt at the fire. Faulkner
states that, notwithstanding this, Mr. Muir positively refused
to admit him, and said that he would not open the door to
any one. He was taken to Mr. Owen's, surgeon, who ren-
dered every assistance necessary at the time; and thence
Faulkner was conveyed to the Infirmary, where he is now
lying, and we regret that we cannot speak of his condition
in terms us favourable as that of his fellow-sufferer Pollitt.
However, he is at present doing well, though-his back is very
dreadfully burned. He states that lie and a friend (Mr.
Newsam, we believe) were returning home on Saturday
night, a little before twelve o'clock, and when near All Saints'
Church, they heard the alarm of fire, 'and ran towards Cam-
bridge-street; and then Newsman who was in the employ of