THE RECENT FIRE AT MELBOURNE. 997 
the vacant warehouse behind Craig, Williamson, and Thomas’s. 
The two warehouses to the east of Sargood’s in Flinders-lane 
were the next to go, but by constant hard work Monahan’s eight- 
storey building, at the corner of Swanston-street and Flinders- 
lane was saved, as were the whole of the other premises facing 
Swanston-street. “ Up till now the six-storey building behind the 
Mutual Store and Stevenson and Son’s four-storey warehouse had 
been preserved ; but the lanes and rights-of-way having become 
blocked by falling walls, the firemen could no longer get to the 
rear, and they, too, fell a prey. By this time the fire was under 
control and was gradually conquered, but not until it had made 
a clean sweep of the whole block except the Gresham Buildings, 
the Mutual store, and the buildings facing Swanston-street. The 
first-named was saved largely owing to the wind driving the fire 
eastwards, while the latter were saved by the exertions of the 
fire brigade—by that time in great force. The Mutual Store was 
known to be specially constructed to resist fire and was also 
almost isolated from adjoining buildings, thus giving the firemen 
confidence, and justifying the paramount efforts made to save it. 
With its construction I will deal later on. 
The scene of the fire itself, when I saw it, presented several 
items worthy of consideration. The most striking was the great 
destruction of apparently substantial brick walls. For instance, 
between Crawford’s and Sargood’s there were two external walls 
built against one another, and aggregating fully 4 feet in thickness. 
These were down almost to the ground level. Was this owing to 
the heat of the fire buckling the brickwork? I think not; because 
other walls, as at Fink’s, where the fire was equally fierce, are 
standing. My solution is this: The walls are of great length and 
unsupported by cross walls, hence weak to resist side thrust or 
pull. The girders in Sargood’s were of iron and I believe con- 
tinuous, and the ends were also probably built tight or fixed in 
the walls. The first action of the heat would be to expand the 
metal and force the walls out; then, as the heat increased, and the 
metal began to soften and sag, the girders pulled the walls down. 
This theory is confirmed by the hollow space of 4 or 5 inches now 
existing between the remains of the two walls referred to, for a 
greater part of the length, but not near the front and rear, where 
they have the support of the front and rear walls. Further, a 
large part of the east wall of Sargood’s fell over into Lincoln, 
Stuart, and Co.’s premises, thus evidencing the pushing power of 
the girders, possibly aided by the greater expansion of the bricks 
of the interior of the wall over those of the exterior. 
It may be objected that clay in burning shrinks, but this is 
only when it is damp. When burnt, I believe it swells with 
further heat. In support of this I would point to the immense 
crack running almost from top to bottom of the east wall in 
