About 8.45 p.m. yesterday the fire alarm out for a fire in the English Settlement, in the Fokien Road. The police and several firemen were upon the spot some time before the reels arrived, during which time several piercing screams were heard from the upper floor of house close to where the blaze was most fierce. Several firemen made heroic attempts to get inside and effect a rescue, but were frustrated by the intense heat and smoke, and it was feared that a woman and child ha perished in the flames. The work of the firemen when the reels and engine arrived was excellent, and what appeared to be a very large fire, owing to the size and spread of the flames, Ww reduced by their efforts and a good service of water, to the destruction of some six or seven houses. At the last moment we hear there is a hope that the people in the house who screamed made good their Fokien Road, a string shop. The property, we understand, was mostly insured.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.