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Great Fire at Yeager's
Wharf, Pyrmont.
A little before 9 o'clock last Tuesday night, says
the Evening News, the western sky over Darling
Harbour was vividly illumined with the reflection of
flames, and it was discovered that a large wooden
building on Yeager's Wharf used as a fruit case
factory was the scene of the disaster, and from the
burning structure sparks and ashes rose high in the
air, falling in the water a considerable distance
away. The residents of Bowman aud Jones streets,
adjacent to Yeager's wharf, and near the far end of
the Bridge, had good grounds for alarm on several
occasions, so thickly did the burniug fragments fall
on their roofs. The wind at the time fortunately
was westerly, and thus prevented the flames spread-
ing to Brown and Brown's foundry and Saunders'
Wharf. The latter place was dangerously near,
and had it caught, three schooners moored there
would very probably have been badly damaged, if
not destroyed. The night watchman on the
premises, John Parsons," was the first to
notice the fire, which was at first in the end
of the place nearest Bowman-street. He and
another man set to work with the hose kept
on the wharf, but made no headway with the
flames, and the fire brigades were alarmed. From
No. 1 Station M.F.B. two steamers and the salvage
van, the Circular Quay engine, and a detachment
and engine from George-Street Station soon arrived.
Tho building, which contained some 100,000 new
fruit cases made of Richmond River pine, was be-
yond saving, so fiercely did the material burn, and
the firemen were set to do the next best thing -
prevent the spread of the flames. In a shed near
the doomed building a quantity of sugar aud corn
was stored, and this looked as if it were destined to
be destroyed. The engines, however, wore equal to
the occasion, and six streams of salt water playing
on the fire, held it to the one structure, and the
men succeeded in getting the fire under in an hour.
The origin of the fire is unknown, and nobody is
reported to have been on the burnt premises since
Thursday last. The building was the property of
Mr. Robert Saunders, of Pyrmont, and was leased
from him by Mr. Yeager. The latter gentleman
knew nothing of the fire till 11 o'clock, he having
been at the Lyceum Theatre. Neither the building
nor its contents were insured, and the damage is
roughly calculated at £2000. The building was a
two-storyed one, about 150ft x 50ft. All that now
remains of it is a heap of charred debris and heat
twisted sheets of iron. At one time some alarm was
felt in the crowd near the fire, through a report that
gunpowder was in the burning place. Some 5cwt
of the explosive was stored in a shed 30 feet from
the burning structure, and the firemen soon had it
in a place of safety. On Wednesday morning the
scene of the fire presented an animated appearance,
a large number of small boys being industriously
engaged in carting the charred timber away. Mr.
Yeager determined to have the place cleared with
all despatch in order, to start re-building, and he
generously gave the residents of the locality leave
to take the debris away. This will prove a boon to
many poor families, supplying a stock of winter
fuel. Some of the sugar in the shed which was
saved has been damaged by water and a little of it
by fire, the flames having just reached the shed
when the hoses were put on it. Messrs Harris and
Ackman owned the sugar, which is insured. A
little chaff was similarly damaged.
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