CORES of Chinese soldiers w Shanghai, Sept. 13. rare routed from their positions in houses on the west side of North Thibet Road by a violent fire which burned for hours yesterday afternoon, They were forced to shift machine-guns and other equipment to safer ground and their sandbag barricades were showered with debris from falling walls, Hundreds of Chinese civilians also were forced to flee and some were unable to save their dearest belongings. Mr. W. Charters, Third Officer of the Shanghai Fire Brigade, broke an ankle in a fall and was taken to the Country Hospital in an ambulance.
The fire started at 140 o'clock in the vicinity of North Thibet_ Road! fand Alabaster Road. The Chinese Soldiers, who. are" members of the Peace Preservation "Corps, said was set by an agent for the Japan ese, But another theory was that Wwas accidentally started from an Dverturned candle in one of the Chinese houses. Whatever the cause, ts' spread was rapid and four blocks lof buildings wore destroyed, while many occupants narrowly escaped Injury. A. Chinese fireman was! slighity injured, One of the ditculties which confronted the Fire Brigade was the burning houses. Ladders hed to be Improvised to allow the firemen to gress the barbed wire, "and boards fad to be placed on the wire where! the hose was laid." Firemen "from Contra Station, led by Capt. Gordon Dyson, Chlet OMicer of the Brigade, extinguished the flamer! after a hard struggle. They fought the fre, at one point, from the top ofa Chinese redoubt "off Alabaster Road, whence the soldiers had been forced to flee.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.