Hull Packet (17/Feb/1818) - Most Calamitous Fire

The following is a transcription of a historic newspaper article and may contain occasional errors. If the article was published prior to 1 June 1957, then the text is likely in the Public Domain.

Most Calamitous Fire

Saturday morning a little after five o'clock, the large cotton mill of Mr. Thos. Atkinson, at Colne Bridge, near Huddersfield, was discovered to be on fire ; and though every exertion was used to extinguish the flames, the whole of it was burnt to the ground. But the most calamitous and dreadful part of the misfortune is yet to relate ; for in consequence of the fire beginning near the staircase, the retreat of a number of the children was cut off, and upwards of fourteen girls, who had been working all night in the factory, perished in the flames. The bodies of six of these sufferers have already been dug from the ruins, but in so mutilated a state as to render it impossible for their nearest friends to recognize them. The consternation and distress occasioned among the friends of those children who are missing, may be conceived, but cannot be adequately described.