Flimsy Dwelling as an Important Factory Somewhere about 2 p.m, on Thursday, a man employed in a silk filature at the back of Fearon Road had his clothing ignited whilst attending to some machinery and, in a panic ran into an adjoining building, part of an egg packing plant, belonging to J. Fujimato, with the result that he started a fire in the building. It is unde stood that the man is not so very badly injured and the fire also did not cause any' tremendous amount of damage—for which the Fire Brigade is entitled to full credit—but the facts of the fire are ssu as to give rise to a demand for searching inquiry by the Municipal Council, with a call for the strictest enforcement of whatever safety cegulations there may now be in force and the early addition of other rules where necessary.
A Maze oF Baxwoo.
The building where the fire was located is a long range of what were evidently at one time Chinese dwelling houses, but they have since been knocked into one for the purposes of the egg-packing industry. Built mainly of wood, with just a thin facing of native bricks, they are a maze of bamboo screens, and flimsy staircases, with windows covered by other bamboo screens. Surrounding them are closely packed blocks of dwelling-houses—the worst dens in Shanghai, certainly, but sheltering human beings nevertheless.
When Chief Officer Pett arrived with the Fire Brigade he found the place well alight and a hasty examination shewed the long range of buildings to be tightly packed with many tons of grass rope and thousands of wooden kerosene cases, mostly empty, but some filled' with eggs ready for export. Beyond this, there were many rooms packed absolutely to the walls and ceilings with paddy husk.
With the terrible happening of a few days ago fresh in his memory—when cotton swollen with water caused the collapse of a wall and severely injured some of his men—Mr. Pett hesitated to pump water into the heart of the fire and for the moment it seemed difficult to know what to do. Firemen protected by smoke helmets were promptly set to work removing as much of the inflammable material as was possible from the parts where the fire seemed worst and then water was used. but very sparingly for the walls) were already sagging, and the Chief Officer had the satisfaction of seeing, after half-an-hour's work, that the fire was in check.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.