29th October 1879
St Helier is ablaze
“But soon it became evident that the building was doomed. The flames were bursting through four windows, the premises being literally wrapped in fire.” So wrote a reporter for the British Press, quoted in Guernsey’s The Star, after witnessing a great conflagration in St Helier. No 12 Esplanade had caught fire some time in the later afternoon but nobody had paid the smell of smoke any attention, having been fooled by a similar smell the week before which turned out to be coming from some houses.
This time, it was a whole lot more serious. What was burning wasn’t wood in a grate, but a warehouse containing empty drinks bottles, six tons of potatoes and apples that had been packed for export to the mainland.
The fire gets worse
Residents from neighbouring houses and businesses did their best to put out the fire using buckets of water but, realising they were getting nowhere, called the fire service, which arrived eventually – after breaking down – and with a leaky hose that couldn’t pump the water quickly enough to prevent the flames from making rapid progress through the building and up to the roof.
News spread and spectators arrived by foot and train. Fortunately, the way the wind was blowing confined the fire to the warehouse and saved nearby buildings, but it wasn’t good news for number 12 which was gutted despite the arrival of 50 soldiers from Fort Regent. A similar fire 12 years later once again required assistance from soldiers stationed at the Fort.
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Other events that occured in October
Channel Islands’ king sails for the mainland
- William the Conqueror was already king of the Channel Islands, including Jersey, before he set sail for England.
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HMS Charybdis sinks with heavy loss of life
- JMS Charybdis was sunk by two torpedoes during the Second World War with the loss of more than 400 sailors.
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Clerk flees to Jersey with stolen fortune
- A clerk for the Bank of England fled to Jersey with a fortune he had stolen. He was eventually caught and sentenced to seven years.
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The Channel Islands’ oldest inhabitant dies
- The oldest inhabitant of the Channel Islands died in St Helier at the age of 104.
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