The entire French fire brigade responded to an alarm received from Chinese pharmacy at 230-232 Rue de Weikwei at 3.12 aum. yesterday when seven persons were burned to death and one man was injured as all the resources at the disposal of the Concession fire-fighters went into action, only succeeding in bringing the conflagration under control at 4,17 am, Tne fire was reported extinguished at 4,50 a, m.
Flames were first noticed in a ground floor room and the wooden slait-case caught fire extending the blaze every minute, When the first engines arrived, the three-storey building was completely wrapped in fames which shot several hundred teet into the air and were seen from all parts of the city, With 11 engines on the scene and all the noses available in acuan, the firemen eventually got the better of the con-Hagration and were able to prevent the spreading of the flames to adjoining buildings.
During the first 20 minutes, the water being poured on the flames seemed to have little effect as thè blaze appeared to. be increasing rather than to be subdued, At long last, an improvement was noted although a great deal more remained to be done, Notwithstanding curfew and the late hour, hundreds of curious onlookers filed the streets and gazed in amazement while occupants or adjoining premises rapidly emptied their homes of everything they could carry, with the result that heaps of furniture, bedding, kitchen paraphernaiia and the thousand and' one odds and ends that make up modest Chinese homes, were to be seen for hundreds of feet each side of the scene of the conflagration, Strong police units kept over-curious onlookers at a respectable distance and as the first farmers proceeded towards the markets in the vicinity, the flames were still to be seen as far as Yates Road, Units of the brigade remained on the scene until after 10 am. and finally withdrew after having ascertained that there was no danger of the re-ignition of debris, The Concession police are now investigating the origins of the fire.
But this had not been the frst blaze attended to by the brigade since midnight, for at 1238 am, several machines were rushed to a fire in a tooth-brush factory at 474, Route de Zikawei, The blaze was under control at 1.05 a, m, and reported extinguished at 1.40 a, m, At 3,05 am, only seven minutes before the pharmacy fire, engines responded to a call received from 50, Rue Wagner where some clothing on a terrace Had caught fire. The flames were extinguished within a few minutes,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.