Thirteen unoccupied shops ang hoitses suffered irreparable damage i, a huge fire which occurred in' Hong kew yesterday noon following blaze in one of the shops, which quickly spread along the whole roy, defying the efforts of firemen it under control, Starting at a'shop situated at 155 Market St, just before 12.30 p.m, the Aire spread rapidly along the Whole row of unoccupied shops, and ther into lanes off the road, from where the flames were carried by a strong breeze to several lanes off Yuenfong Road.
By the time the fire had reaches Yuenfong Road, the first. shop tp catch fre had been gutted, and the rest of the block was blazing furious. ly. Huge palls of dense smoke were being blown across the area and flames were shooting high Into the "Receiving a call at 1238 three ey. gines were despatched from the Hongkew Station, and on arrival at the scene found that the flames ha gained rapidly, making it virtually impossible to save any of the few shops which had been eaten by the conflagration.
Attacking the blaze from different points firemen from the three engine: Poured thousands of gallons of water into the fire and atter nearly three hours' work gained control.
As a result of the fire three shops situated at 186, 188 and 190 Market St. were gutted completely, No. 102 was very badly damaged, and at No 184 the roof and ceiling suffered from =|the ravages of the flames and water 'The roofs and cellings of Nos. 18 and 180 were destroyed by the blaze, while on Yuenfong Road the drying stages and window frames were burnt at Nos, 10, 12, and 14. At Lane 110 off Yuenfong' Road, a house situated at No. 15 was damaged, the roof and ceilinse being scorched,' The Inst house to suffer from the fro was No, 168 Market St, where woodwork and a tying stare were completely Noone was injured by the bla which was one of the largest seen the district for some time, although, at one time, it was thought that the dense smoke would harm the large crowd which had gathered in the vicinity, The wind, however, die persed the clouds, but had the effec! of watting the huge flames towards other property with disastrous results.
All_the property was unoecuoied the "North-China Daily News" was Informed yesterday, but the damage expected to be great.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.