The Rhode Islander

Fire in Cincinnati, and Loss of Life.--An extra from the office of the Cincinnati Gazette, of Feb. 26, gives the following particulars of a destructive fire in that city.

"On Saturday afternoon, about 5 o'clock, a fire broke out in the smoke house of Messrs. Pugh & Alvord, at the corner of Walnut street and the Canal, which, in its consequences, has been one of the most distressing that ever occurred in this city.

The smoke house was in the rear, and somewhat detached from the main building, being connected with it only by a wooden door and narrow passage way. It was thought the fire could be confined to the former, and for that purpose the Pork House was closed, by shutting all the doors and windows, to exclude a rush of air to feed the flames. In the course of half an hour the main building was filled with smoke, rarified air, and probably some inflammable gas, from the smoke house, and when the flames burst through the wooden door connecting the two buildings, an instantaneous roar of flame was perceived, and, in the twinkling of an eye, the whole of this spacious, substantial building was a mass of ruins. The whole roof was lifted up in the air and thrown into the streets in large fragments--the second story walls on the north and south sides were thrown down, and the whole eastern end of both stories fronting on Walnut, blown into the street, from its foundation up.

The appearance of the explosion was awfully terrific, and its consequences fatal to several of our most estimable citizens. It is thought that from eight to twelve persons were immediately killed, and probably twenty were severely wounded, some of them dangerously."