, 1866-04-03

VhLNA
ming the fat off and throwing it into
barges. The quantity of tallow stored
in the four warehouses that were on fire
was between 1000 and 5000 casks,
about 500 of which are believed to have
been destroyed. The value varies from
EDS to G4O per cask. Several hundred
barrels of palm and cocoa-nut oil are
included in the loss account, and the
quantity of iute, flax, and coir-Abre burnt
was very great.
By Thursday evening the fire which
had been burning four days and three
nights, more or less, might be said 10 have
exhausted itself, and all apprehension as
to its breaking out afresh had been lulled'
Few engines were kept playing on the
ruins to cool them and 10 e~xtingulsh
any latent fire that might still be SUM
boring there, but all further danger had
passed and now that q view can be had OF
the scene of the fire the great havoc 1t
has occasioned reveals itself in a very
striking manner. The pile of buildings
in which it originated was about 44O feet
in it's entire length, form 14O 10 145 feet
deep, and six stories high. 1t was dlVl-
ded into bays, each about 80 feet by 50
feet, and separated by strong party walls,
for the purpose of convenience, and espe-
cially by way of protection against hre.
On each floor, wherever there was a
communication between one bay or dlvI-
sion or another, it was by means OF dou-
BILE doors of iron, between which, when
closed, there was a clear space of about
three feet. In the event OF a fire IN one
division this arrangement as TO doors and
party walls was calculated to have the
fleet of combining it to that particular
part Of the building just as IN the case OF
o ship built with aIr-tlght compartments,
which would be expected still to float,
though one of them had been stove IN by o
collision or otherwise. On this occasion the
arrangement has been subjected to a severe
test, and it is not certain that 1t has an
swered the end for which it was designed
Wherever the FIRE has extended beyond Il
party wall, it is not known, and probable
never will be known, whether the iron
doors had not been lett open In the
confusion consequent upon the first
alarm of fire and in the general rush OF
workmen from the building. The vast
pile Of buildings so constructed and ar
ranged lined an entire side Of one OF the
largest basins in the docks, and of that
about three-fourths have been consumed,
entailing a loss with respect to the struc-
ture alone estimated at from $3.50 to
G30,O 900, and in bound commodities of
infinitely greater value in the aggregate.
This loss will fall almost entirely on the
insurance-ofices, it being the almost
universal custom with dock companies
and wharingers on the Thames to insure
their premises, and with the consignees
who have materials warehoused there to
insure those materials. Occasionally
consignees do not insure, elccting to run
the risk against fire, but that is a very
exceptional case. 1t is not alone IN this
case in the commodities actually des-
troyed by the fire that the loss arises, but
also to a great extent in the unavoidable
destruction of property by the fremen in
their attempts to e%xtinguish it. Per-
haps quite as much jute has been deS-
troyed by water as by fire. Again, q
vast quantity of water found its way into
the vaults lining that side of the basin
and stored with wine, in spite of the ex-
e~rtions to dam it out. What effect that