The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-09-05
The Great Fire i'm London.
(From the London Times, June e5)

1t is only by a providential circumstance that we
have been spared the duty of recording one of the
most terrible calamities by which Il great city can
be visited. There was a moment on Saturday eve
ming when il seemed possible that the great fire Of
London might occur over again and, indeed, it
was not owing TO any resources of modern times
that this catastrophe was escaped. Our reports Of
this c0niagration will have shown how powerless
are all our inventions against the fury Of the flames.
1t was not in the dead Of night, but on a summer
afternoon, that the fire brigade in Walling street
was summoned to Cotton's wharf, close TO London
bridge, on the South side OF the Thames. The en-
gines, directed 10y the chief Of the brigade in person,
were quickly on the spot, when il was found that a
fire had broken out in the first story Of Il warehouse.
The building was perfectly new, and constructed on
approved principles of architecture strong party
walls, provided with iron doors, divided the fabric,
and the warehouses IN the vicinity were reputei TO
be freproof also. The place had not been aband-
oned for the night the wOrkmen were still on the
spot, and one OF them actually discovered in a small
heap of smoking hemp the germ of that contiagra-
ton which before midnight was represented by three
acres Of flame. Unhappily the smoke at that early
period protected the fire. So dense were its volum
as to forbid MI approach, and the flame was left to
do its work. Still there was a vast array of en-
gines in the street rs well rs ON the stream there
was a trained brigade of hremen, conducted by a
courageous and experienced leader; there was a strong
body of police to aid III keeI ;ng order, and there
were ~freproof walls to contend against fire. But,
of all of these appliances, not one awaited to control
the flames. They burst forth from the warehouse,
and seized another. Iron and brick, though they
did not actually blaze, yet burnt through and
through, till they became red not masses. Mr..
BraidwoOd, the chief OF the brigade, at once dis
cernel the true state of the case, and predicted
from his survey the magnitude of the conhagration.
IL was the last opinion he was fated to utter. y
few minutes later, as he was placing his men at
their posts, and encouraging them by his directions
and example, he met his death. y tremendous eX-
plosion of ~saltpeter in a vault shook down the en-
tire frontage Of . warehouse, and he was buried I'M
der the ruins. His fall dismayed his men, already
distressed by the severity Of their duties, and yet
they rushed like brave followers TO his rescue-but
in vain. \ second explosion drove them from the
spot, and the ascendancy Of the fire was now COM
pl,te. IL does not seem, indeed, that there was
ever much chance of subduing the flames even from
the first, but from this moment the contest WAS de-
ciied. The brigade was power!ess. All our great
engines and all our trained hremen were of no avail.
Our fre-proof buildings failed to keep out the fire.
and it depended simply on the force aud direction Of
the wind how much Of Southwark might be left
standing ON Monday morning.
Providentially, the night was calm yet every
now and then. when a little gust came up the
river. the redoubled roar of the flames and the
fakes If fire launched into the atmosphere showed
the magnitude Of the peril Even as 1t was, the
spectacle aud the ruin are alike without parallel in
our time. Three acres Of ground were gradually
covered with a mass Of fire, glowing and cracking
at a white heat like q lake Of molten iron. The
s~altpeter, the tailow, the tar, and the other COM
bustibles stored in the warehouses. ran blazing into
the river. until the very stream appeared 10 be
covered with flames. Ships were burned rs well as
houses, and the danger 10 life was almost as great
on the Thames as in the street. The glare Of the
confagration was not only visible but s~trikingly con-
spicuOus, thirty miles off. The multitude Of spec
tators was enormous, and the excitement iucreii-
BILE. We may truly say, indeed, that never for
two centuries, has the metropolis seen such a Gu
tastrophe.
The original account seems 10 indicate pretty
clearly the probable origin of the FIRE. Ii Is not
the first time that hemp and jute have been found
in spontaneous combustion but two circumstances
are reported which may have conduced to the spread
of the confagration, and the helpleSsness Of those
who attempted TO subdue il. The workmen en-
ployed in the warehouse had omitted, It i said, to
close the iron doors by which communication was
maintained between the several divisions Of the
building, aud for the first hour or so-that Is TO say,
at the very time when the play Of the engines would
have been most efective-there was little water 10
be obtained. Whether the flames could have been
got under at this particular conjuncture must now
remain a matter Of speculation only but it seems
plain that by 8 o'clock the fire had established its
and that mans efforts were vain. From
that time was seen how limited are the powers Of
modern science. The new buildings would have re-
sisted an ordinary fire, but not a FIRE like this. The
most prodigIous Jets of water went for nothing
against acres of flame. \ steady breeze from the
and half Southwark might have been in ruins.
Happily, the air was still but SO terrible has been
the danger that we may look even upon this calamity
in the light II an escape.