Fire at Hougham. - October 1898.

On Saturday afternoon a good deal of excitement was aroused in the neighbourhood of the [Dover] Fire Station by calling out the Fire Brigade to go to a fire at Church Hougham. The call was received shortly before five and within a few minutes the manual fire engine was horsed from Mr Hick’s stables and being driven by one of his coachman at a rapid pace towards the Folkestone Road. Superintendent Sanders was in charge and in the engines were also Constable Scutt and Green, Mr F. Sanders and Sergeant Amos Stone, K.K.C.

The journey to Hougham was done in less than half an hour without incident en route, unless one of the horses shying at a tram car which necessitated a sudden turn from the Folkestone Road into St. Johns Road may be termed such. The road to Hougham up the Elms Vale being just a little mountainous, the time occupied on the journey could not be called excessive.

On arrival at Hougham it was found that the fire was at Apsley House, a large block occupied by Mr & Mrs Ernest Tanton. The house formally consisted of three separate houses that had since been turned into one. It was the end house of the original three that was ablaze, the other two having been kept free from fire owing to the partition being a brick wall that ran from the cellar to the roof. The fire had started at four o’clock and had made rapid progress, so that when the Dover Fire Brigade arrived, the house was in flames from top to bottom, the floors having begun to fall in and the roof having been destroyed.

Efforts had been made by the inhabitants to check the fire by throwing water from buckets, but with little effect. Ladders had been set up against the house on each side for this purpose and also to get at the roof which was broken away so that the next house of the original three might escape contact with the fire at the roof. There was a deep pond for the Dover fire engine to draw upon and as soon as the hose was fixed the pumps was set going by shifts of the villagers. The hose pouring a powerful stream of water on the fire, that up till then was blazing away, soon got under control. After attacking the fire from the sides and from the top it was extinguished sufficiently for Constables Scutt and Green and Mr F. Sanders to go inside the house and while dodging falling embers, knocking down the burning beams and rafters in doing this work.

Green had a narrow escape. He was knocking a beam away from the upper floor, when the lower one he was standing on gave way and came down. He crashed into the cellar that was full of fire. Scutt who was outside, quickly caught sight of the fallen officer and reaching through the cellar window hauled him out from the fiery region below almost as soon as he had got there and in an unscathed condition.

After this bit of excitement, the hose was again turned on and after another soaking and then another turn at clearing away the burning beams, the fire seemed fairly out. It was found necessary to pay attention to several beams imbedded in the upper walls, which were alight, and also it was a long time before the debris, which had fallen to the cellar could be extinguished. It was necessary to use picks and shovels to get at the under part before it could be extinguished. This was very hot work and the fireman’s boots needed frequent drenching to keep them cool.

At length however, after nearly three hours work the Dover Fire Brigade had thoroughly extinguished the fire and given everything a good soaking so that there was no more danger. About nine o’clock the engine and her crew returned to Dover. The house was then completely gutted from where the roof once was, to the cellar. The fire was discovered by Mrs Ernest Tanton shortly before four o’clock, when she noticed smoke coming from the windows of the upper room.

There was an absence of wind, otherwise the damage would have been much more extensive as four wheat stacks were standing close to the house and there are farm buildings on either side. At the rear of the part that was burnt, is a bake house and it is suspected that the fire arose from the flue of this, which runs into the chimney of the house. The cellar of the house destroyed was fitted up as a dairy.

Mrs Tanton senior owns the property whose husband died almost a fortnight ago in Dover Hospital.

The buildings were insured in the Norwich Union Fire Office. All of the house furniture was got out of the two adjoining parts of the house, but a large quantity of that in the top part burned to the ground was destroyed.

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Transcribed by Joyce Banks from Dover Express

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