CORES of Chinese soldiers were 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 Tire 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 and Alabaster Road. The Chinese soldiers, who are members of the Preservation Corps, said it was set by an agent for the Japanese, but another theory was that it was accidentally started from an, overturned candle in one of th Chinese houses. Whatever the cause, its spread teas rapid and four blocks lof buildings were destroyed, while occupants narrowly escaped injury. A Chinese fireman was slightly injured, One of the difficulties which confronted the Fire Brigade the presence of barbed-wire barriers between North Thibet Road and the burning houses. Ladders had to be improvised to allow the firemen to cross the barbed wire, and boards had to be placed on the wire where the hose w. laid, Firemen from Central Station, led by Capt. J. Gordon Dyson, Chief Officer of the Police, who were on duty on the Settlement side of the Creek, were of the opinion that its point of origin was a large oil mill, which immediately broke out in flames over its entire length, perhaps 150 ft. Afterwards the flames, assisted by high winds spread over an area of one quarter mile square. Although an open grassy plot prevented an immediate spread in the direction of the Fu Foong Flour Mill, (an American Marine observation post) it was only a matter of moments until burning embers had spread the flames over a distance of 200 yd. in width and 150 ft. in depth, From then on there was no stopping their progress.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.