Among the structures destroyed or gutted were two small Chinese iron works and a Chinese printing establishment, the National Press, all in North Thibet Road. It was thought the materials in these plants gave to the smoke that peculiar blackness which distinguished the blaze from ordinary house fires. A huge column of smoke, rivalling and at times exceeding that emanating from the conflagration near the Markham Road Railway yard, rose over the scene and could be noted for miles round Shanghai.
Police from West Hongkew Station, under Insp, J. E. P. Blenkinsop, kept a large crowd of the curious in check in the streets of West Hongkew and assisted in evacuations of families from the burning block. Members of the Police Specials, under the command of Chief Insp. N, B. Ramsay, were on duty in North Thibet Road and adjoining streets. On guard there, also were soldiers of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, whose defences face North Thibet Road. Chinese crowds on the south side of the bridge were kept under control by police squads from Louza Station. The barbed-wire barrier on the bridge was closed while the fire was in progress.
The Chinese Fire Brigade functioned on the Chinese side of the Settlement gates and was assisted by Chinese soldiers. It was chiefly due, however, to the efforts of the Settlement Brigade that the blaze was extinguished. Water to play on the fire was pumped from the Soochow Creek by one of the engines, drawn up in North Soochow Road a short distance east of the North Thibet Road Bridge.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.