[Editor: This article is an extract from the general news section published in The Bendigo Advertiser (Bendigo, Vic.), 11 September 1897.]
A Disastrous Fire.
— About 8 o’clock last night a five-roomed weatherboard house, situated at the corner of Bayne and Stewart streets, and occupied by Mr. J. Baker, an Advertiser compositor, was with the furniture completely destroyed by fire.
The No. 1 Brigade’s contingent had first water on, but as it arrived somewhat late the firemen were unable to save the building, and of its contents only a sewing machine and several articles of jewellery were recovered.
Two of Mr. Baker’s little boys, aged respectively two and three years, would, but for the bravery of a lad named Harry Harding, 12 years old, who lives opposite, and Mr. Baker’s nine-year-old daughter, Kate, have suffered death in the flames. The youthful rescuers rushed into the bedroom, which was enveloped in flames, in which the two children were, and carried them out unharmed.
The Temperance Brigade, with its horse-reel, was also present, but its hose was not unrolled. The manner in which the building caught fire is unknown, but as the outbreak started in a bedroom in which one of the children had been several minutes before, it is surmised that he must be accountable for the conflagration.
The house, which belonged to ex-Constable Meade, was insured for £150 in the London and Lancashire Co., of which Mr. W. C. Grimley is the local agent, but the furniture, which is estimated to have been worth £120, was uninsured.
While the No. 1 Brigade was returning from the fire the axle of the horse-reel broke.
Source:
The Bendigo Advertiser (Bendigo, Vic.), 11 September 1897, p. 4
Editor’s notes:
Co. = an abbreviation of “Company”
compositor = someone who sets type for printing; a typesetter
conflagration = a large destructive fire which destroys many things over a sizable area; an inferno
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