The great fire, again, which occurred in Liverpool in October last,
was occasioned by the explosion of spirits of turpentine, which blew
out, one after another, seven of the walls of the vaults underneath
the warehouse, and in some cases destroyed the vaulting itself, and
exposed to the flames the stores of cotton above. Surely some law is
called for to prevent the juxtaposition of such inflammable materials.
The turpentine is said to have been fired by a workman who snuffed the
candle with his fingers, and accidentally threw the snuff down the
bung-hole of one of the barrels of turpentine. The warehouses burnt
were built upon Mr. Fairbairn's new fireproof plan, which the
Liverpool people introduced, some years ago, at a great expense to the
town.
Water alone brought into sudden contact with red hot iron is capable
of giving rise to a gas of the most destructive nature--witness the
extraordinary explosions that are continually taking place in
steam-vessels, especially in America, which mostly arise from the
lurching of the vessel when waiting for passengers, causing the water
to withdraw from one side of the boiler, which rapidly becomes red
hot.
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