The Warwickshire Herald. — 1887-06-30 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

FATAL FIRE IN LONDON.  TAMS OF FOUR L1VE...4. EXCITING SCENES.  Fatly on Sunday morning the neighborrhood of Ox!Oid *treed.. London, was ifttl.(l NY a terrible fire, by which a mother end her two children were leant to , death, and a young man wee killed by jumpieg from a window. The scene of the detester was 2e, , Newman street, which was occupied by no fewer than ! des en di.fcrent fainites or ti nants. In the top front room lied a shoemaker named . Hammond. his wife Mary Aim. and his to children, toy aged nineand a girl of 6131. Ater the tire 110 limg could be !maid of Hammond, and it was thought he bad perieheJ, hut at ten in the moaning he appeased at the police stat:on in Tottenham Courtroad, and reported that he had stoppf d the night with • Inane relat:ens in l'uston-rold, and returned borne in the morning to find that his family had been burnt to ,dcah. All the occupants of the !mese retired to rest about mid eight on ;at iday. but it is liitEClllt to say what actually occ :reed afterwards. It is certain, how-1 ever,that Mrs. Hammond threw epen the top windew, which was a great height from the ground, and cried j out "Fire," "Murder." and "Police." A party of gentlemen were playing cards in a house opposite, but they took no notice of the cries until they obsereed ' a sudden glare, and then they witnessed an appalling sight. At the top window, with a child in her arms, i and making pitema gestures for help. steed Mr.. Hammond. Ater a moment she wee seen to stand rigidly ; upright and then fall backwards, apparently overcome ; with tie smcke. Iminediately aCterwards a youth appeared at the window, and rapidly threw out a mat' tress, pillow, and bolster. Remarkable to relate, the ; people in the street apparently imagined that the ! yo tine le low was thiowing out the Canes 'to sae . them. They therecere carefully retrace ett them, but • his intention uudoel.tedly use to jump ueen the ' article, for immediately aterwards he got upon the window silk and in an-ther second jumped one The d eeene he had to fall was neariy tifht..and for a time he came duwn feet first. Then the horrified spec, taters saw him turn over in mid-air, mil he fe;l headfirst upon the pavemeut beneath. His brans were • dashed out, and the place around was plashed sseth blood. A moment later the sheet was raised "There's ano her, and thereupon a woman (Mrs. Tewnsend was perceised at the same window. Sim first put her es out, and then wadi:ally slipeine. heng at full hngth by her arms from the windowed% Her in-1 tention to drop heated out was obvious, and the crowd which now nunabered thirty or forty °peek, attempted to present a second dreadful catastrephe. Rushing to the spot where the poor young fellow had just before met his death, they loudly called on the woman to drop, She did so immedietely but sta dense aeainst the railings, she sustained injuries to her thigh. Frain the Tailing; she rebounded to the shou'dere of the crowd, and so broke the force of her fal! but her inniriee ince eitated her iretant remot al ts the Middlesex Hospital. The smoke in the ho; se was next suclocatine. but the firemen, by dint of hard work, were enabled to prevent any extension of the fames the 'osver ewes, and at four o'clock the conilagration was suLd ,ett. Captain Shaw then di covered the bodies of ' the two children. Immediately afterwards the body of the mother was fteind ' between the windows, and preemted a shocking sight, being simply a mass of charred Venes. I noeiry as to other inmates elicited the fact that a Mrs. Lawrence and her sons had effected their escape by  running along the parapet and getting into the'nos't pri-mises. The fire caused a a nful sensation in the neighbourhood dunng the who!e of Monday. and resit crowds visited the scene.