The total number of calls received was 29, of these 23 proved to be genuine fires, 21 occurring within the Settlement and 2 outside; of the remainder five were either false alarms or not traced and one call was due'to a house having collapsed.
The damage on assessed property within the Settlement was estimated at Tls. 7,120 whilst the property at risk was estimated at Tis.
3,471,500.
Four buildings wers destroyed whilst 13 were damaged:
Machines travelled approximately 201 miles, hose used amounted to 17,250 feet and the time occupied was approximately 155 hours.
There was nothing exceptional as regards the supposed cause of fires within the Settlement.
On May 2 at 5.22 a.m. an outbreak occurred at J 1777/8 East Seward Road, a machine shop. On arrival of the Brigade the place was in flames and the fire spreading to No. 1776, a barber's shop, and to Nos. 1779/80, a pawn shop. After a thirty minutes fight the fire was subdued and finally extinguished. The first floors of Nos. 1777/8 were practically gutted, whilst those of Nos. 1779/80 were badly damaged.
On May 13 at 3.43 p.m. a report was received from the Police that a house No. G94/5 Tiendong Road: had collapsed and assistance was required. A section from Hongkew at once responded and on arrival] found that the first floor had given way owing to overloading. Two men were rescued from the debris and what remained of the floor was shored up and then cleared of all goods, On May 24 at 11.15 a.m. a telephone message was received asking for the assistance of the Brigade at the Nissen Kisen Kaisha Wharf on the Pootung side. A section from the Central Division at once went down, boarded the Fire Float and went across. On arrival it was found that Nos. 2 and 3 Godowns were a mass of flames and it was at, once realized that it would be impossible to save them, so attention was immediately paid to protecting the surrounding godowns. Considering the fierceness of the fire, this was most successfully done as none of the other godoWns were touched at all. Great assistance at this fire was rendered by the Robert Dollar Tug, the first to arrive on the scene, the Customs' Float, and also by party of Japanese sailors landed from the man-of-war in harbour at the time.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.