Few London fires of recent years have been attended wit'i
so great a loss of life as that which took place in the Edgware Road early on Wednesday morning—i.e., a little after 1 o'clock —on the premises of Madame Martin, a French laundres The fire was discovered by a policeman on duty in the street, who noticed smoke coming from one of the windows. He at once summoned the fire-engines ; but before they came, fiamei had begun to burst from the windows. The building burned like tinder, and it was not till after an hour and a half that it was possible to find out what loss of life had taken place. It appears certain that Madame Martin, five French laundry- maids, and a man and a boy were burnt to death, but more may have perished. It is said, we know not with what truth. that Madame Martin was in the habit of locking her assistants into their rooms at night, as she was specially anxious to pre- vent the girls in her laundry getting into mischief, and that this was the cause of the heavy loss of life. No doubt such an act would have greatly increased the danger of a fire; but probably in this case the fire spread so rapidly that escape was from the first impossible.
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