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FIRES & FIRE BRIGADE.
It was
There is a slight inaccuracy in the reference made by "Towndwellers" to the Great Fire in 1879. (26-6-33) The fire was in 1878, and broke out on Christmas night, and affected nineteen streets in the central district, the first great fire to engage the attention of the Police Fire Brigade. The conflagration commenced in Endicott Lane and before the brigade arrived and steam had been raised, the flames fanned by a strong breeze spread rapidly and three houses were consumed. When steam had been raised and the hoses connected up, it was found that the hose to one of the appliances had been severed in two places. There is reason to believe that it was deliberately rendered useless; by whom was never discovered. Houses on the north side of Queen's Road were set ablaze, and so fiercely did the fire rage that the men working the engine of the Imperial Insurance Company (Messrs. Gibb, Livingston & Co.) and other hand engines had to beat a hasty retreat. The fire raged all night and all the following day, and it was not until six o'clock in the evening of Boxing Day that the blaze was got under control.
It was not until January 2, 1879, that work in connection with sequelling of the outbreak absolutely ceased. The Military and Naval help, but the Royal Naval Yard's steam engine could not be worked for want of water, and the blasting parties, provided by the Military soon ran out of powder and their fuses refused to go off. They had been asked to demolish buildings in the fire area in order to confine the outbreak. Three hundred and sixty-eight houses were destroyed and the loss was estimated at $241,760 to local and foreign insurance companies with a total damage of $1,000,000. The Volunteer Fire Brigade of the time rendered yeoman service, some of the members working for nineteen hours at a stretch. The engines were employed for 181 hours continuously pumping water from the sea onto the flames.
Reference to the big fire recalls the work of the Fire Brigade and its early connection with the Colony. As with Shanghai up to the present day, Hongkong had originally a Volunteer Fire Brigade, which was formed in January 1856, the members being European residents. In March that year a Chinese brigade was also formed. It can be understood that these bodies were needed at a time when the city largely consisted of mat-shed buildings, or buildings with matting roofs. Yet, enthusiasm appears to have died down, and for some years the Police were left to fight fires by themselves. In 1873, the Hongkong Fire Insurance Companies, which had then become well established here, realised the importance of a large body equipped to fight fires - especially as there were quite a number of incendiary outbreaks at that period of the Colony's history. Under these Insurance Companies' auspices, therefore, another Volunteer Fire Brigade was formed in that year; only to lapse like the other ones had done earlier. The next we hear of a voluntary brigade is during the Great War, and it lasted up to early 1920.
Since the end of 1922, the Colony's well-equipped and well-trained official Fire Brigade has been the only body in existence with the express objects of fire-fighting, though the Police as usual have their own auxiliary service, and the Navy on more...