The Great Fire of Melbourne
21 November, 1897, 2.20am, the alarm at the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Street was sounded by a on duty policeman.
A Fire Brigade steamer and horse drawn hose carriage were on the scene within minutes but the blaze had been burning for some time and the flames were already intense.
Virtually the entire block bounded by Elizabeth Street, Flinders Street, Swanston Street and Flinders Lane was alight.
The Firemen had trouble getting the experienced horses near the fire because of the heat. All the windows along the block began to crack and crash.
Within 30 minutes 130 firemen were on the scene. "A total of ten hose carts, seven steamers, two ladder carriages and 191 men fought the blaze with more than 4 miles of hose."
The Melbourne water supply was inadequate to supply a full, and continuous flow of water to all the fire appliances.
This extract taken from the book "Life Under the Bells" by Sally Wilde....
.........."spot fires were breaking out downwind. Unfortunately, the first place where it was safe to get men and appliances in behind the fire was Swanston Street.
Firemen tried to get in down the narrow lanes running from Flinders Street to Flinders Lane, but these were death traps. They were showered with red hot bricks and the narrow rights of way soon become blocked with fallen roofs and walls.
Time after time, as the fire progressed east, firemen were beaten back out of these alleys as they acted as immense flues, swirling burning material upwards to be borne east by the wind. Fragments of burnt carpet, paper and cloth
were later found as far away as Hawthorn !! "............
A later inquiry into the fire prompted the MFB to fast track the expansion and motorisation of the Brigade.
Find out more about the "Great Fire of Melbourne" at the Fire Services Museum of Victoria.
Information taken from
"Life Under the Bells, A History of the MFB 1891 - 1991"
by Sally Wilde.
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