Alexandria Advertiser And Commercial Intelligencer

May 23.
FIRE AT WOOLWICH WARREN.
On Thursday morning, about 4 o'clock,
the soldier on guard discovered a fire that
had broke out at the depository at Woolwich Warren. The alarm bells were rung,
and the drums beat to arms, when every
effort was immediately used to stop its
progress. The greatest precautions were
taken to preserve that steady and cool attention which is the source of every hope
and excellence on such a momentous occasion. As soon as the drums had beat to
arms, the gates of Warren were shut, to
the exclusion of the townspeople, who in
their officious zeal, might have produced
that confusion which was the wish of the
military power to prevent. Towards
five o'clock, the fire raged with uncommon fury threatening the destruction of all
the adjoining buildings. When it spread
nearer and nearer to the Laboratory, the
consequence of such an explosion was truly
alarming, that at one time, to prevent a
greater evil, it was in contemplation to
batter it down with cannon. The wind,
however, very fortunately confined the
devastation to the Depository; for, had
it blown from another quarter, the most
intelligent men are of opinion, that not
only the Laboratory and the Warren,
but nearly the whole town of Woolwich, would have been reduced to ruins.
After two hours laudable exertion on the
part of the soldiers, firemen, and some
inhabitants of the town, who were afterwards admitted, the fury of the flames
began to abate, and the fire was gradually
mastered in such a manner as to dispel
every alarm for its further progress. The
first and chief care was to remove the
bombs and mortars from the imminent
danger in which they were situated. Besides the fears for the Laboratory, in another building adjoining were about six
thousand gun-carriages, and vast quantities of ammunition, in store-houses and
workshops. With the exception of three
mortars which made a terrible explosion
indeed, all the articles of a dangerous nature were removed. The damages according to the best accounts which could be
collected were infinitely more than might
have been expected from the time of the
duration of the fire, the whole of the curiosities, from the confusion natural to such
a scene, became the victims of the implacable flames. They consisted of arms of
a rare kind, Tippo Saib's gun, India wall
Pieces, a variety of cannon, rockets, &c.
in short, almost every article used in the
military art, together with every specimen
of warlike weapons; and what was the
most remarkable curiosity of all, the model of Gibraltar. Report estimates the
loss at upwards of 100,000l.
The injury done to the beautiful model
of the Rock of Gibraltar is not so great as
was at first represented, it having sustained
but a slight damage, which can be easily repaired, and the whole restored to its
original state.