A fire broke out in the Edgware Road on Wednesday
morning, attended with unusual loss of life. Soon after 6, the cook at one of Messrs. Garrould's shops in Queen Street noticed fire, and in a few minutes the flames spread through the building, the upper floors of which were ultimately burnt out. Some twenty-five young women were sleeping in the two connected houses, and though some were saved by the coolness of the French dressmaker, who showed them a way on to the leads at the back, five were burned alive, and many of the rest injured in jumping from the upper windows. It was half- an-hour before water was obtained, and no fire-escape arrived in time, those who manage them having quitted work at 6 a.m. Although the houses were so high and so full, no precautions had been taken against fire, and no means of escape provided, though had there been one of the canvas bags now used for the purpose, or even a couple of rope-ladders, all might have descended in safety. The public cry out for State inspection ; but there are hotels and lodging-houses in much more danger than large shops, and we cannot inspect everything. The most effective remedy would be an Act invalidating every insurance policy on a building the occupier of which had not taken certain (scheduled) precautions against the loss of life by fire. A jury could then easily decide if the cause of death was misadventure or fire not provided against.
