Fire in High Street, Penrith

By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc.

Asmoulder that probably would have developed into a big fire was discovered on Saturday night (30th July 1920) in a shop in High Street Penrith where George Michael had conducted a general drapery business for the last few months. The outcome was that George was arrested the next day and was given bail on a charge of maliciously setting fire to the shop. While several of the “Diggers” were playing billiards in the Soldiers’ Club that night, they noticed smoke coming into their room and going out onto the balcony they found that it was coming from George’s shop. They went at once to the rescue, and by means of an axe forced an entrance by the front door at about the same time that Percy Taber who had a bakery business next door when Roland Price appeared on the scene for the same purpose. On entering the shop, they found the fumes so strong that they had to retire, but resorted to placing damp handkerchiefs over their mouths so they were able to get to the source of the trouble and with the application of a few buckets of water they extinguished the fire. No great damage had been done by the flames, merely the destruction of a few towels etc, but the smoke had a damaging effect on much of the stock. The fire brigade had been told of the danger, but the trouble was over when the firemen arrived. George lived at Coogee and usually went home on the weekends, and he was told about the fire, and on his arrival at Penrith by train on Sunday afternoon he was arrested. Next morning, he was brought before the Court and was charged with maliciously setting fire to a shop in High Street with intent to defraud the Guardian Assurance Company Ltd of Sydney. He was remanded and allowed bail being £100 for him and two sureties of £50 each. At the coroner’s inquiry into the fire in August, Sergeant Williamson said that a little after 10 pm he went to premises in High Street where George Michael conducted a drapery business. On his arrival he saw the captain of the local fire brigade and one of his assistants with Constable Sweeting and he could see that the fire had broken out near the north-eastern corner of the shop where some shelving and a quantity of drapery had been burnt, but the fire had been extinguished before he arrived. Three doors were locked, the passage street door, the back door and the outer door leading to the backyard. The panels of the two latter doors had been broken in. The door to the main entrance had also been broken open. The following morning, in company with Captain Walsh of the fire brigade and Constable Sweeting they made a detailed examination of the premises. At 3 pm on the Sunday, Constable Sweeting came along with him when they went to see the occupant George Michael arrive at Penrith from a Sydney train and he said to him that there had been a fire at his shop and asked him if he had any insurance. George said yes and he handed him a card for “The Guardian Assurance Co., 72 Pitt Street, Sydney. He then asked George how much he was insured for, and he said £700. He then went with him to his shop and on arrival there, he pointed out to George the positions of the various articles that have been exhibited in court. He showed him the doors and drew his attention to the fact that they were locked and showed him the position of material that covered both windows in the shop. There was a thin muslin covering on the western shop window, and over that a piece of cretonne, a print wrapper and a waterproof cape spread out with one or two other articles hanging up. On the eastern window a pyjama coat was hanging up, a piece of towel, a piece of cretonne and a motor dustcoat (spread out) and a waterproof overcoat also hanging there. After cautioning George and pointing to the schnapps bottle containing kerosene, he asked him if it was his property and he replied yes. He then asked him if the bottle was in here and George replied no it was in the kitchen and he didn’t know how it got there. He asked if anybody else had access to the premises and George answered no and said there could be someone else doing it, and at this time the Constable arrested George on suspicion, even though he said he didn’t do it and knew nothing whatever about it. The Constable then said that he could not understand why George should have several candles on the premises when he had a kerosene lamp and electric light. He understood that Percy Taber and Roland Price were the first to enter the shop, and George told him that the material hanging on the inside of the windows was not hanging in the same position where he left them and when he arrested him, he said something to the effect that he had no reason to do that sort of thing and he wasn’t pushed for money. The Constable then said that he believed from the documents he had seen in George’s possession that he was financially sound, but in his opinion the business there was slack. Percy Taber said that he was at his brothers place adjacent to George’s shop and he was about to go to bed when he saw smoke coming from the shop. He went to the shop and put his shoulder to the door but found that it would not yield so he got an axe and knocked out the upper panel and entered the shop with another man named Clemens and they threw buckets of water to put it out and shortly after the fire brigade arrived rubbish in bags were found underneath and behind the counters, and the way the place was locked up the fire could be burning for hours before anyone would have noticed from the outside. After all the evidence was presented, the coroner said he had very carefully gone over the evidence to see if there is anything in George Michael’s favour and he can’t come to any other conclusion than to send the case along to the Attorney-General to consider, and with that George was committed for trial at Parramatta Quarter Sessions. Photo shows the Penrith Fire Brigade (1905) in High Street courtesy of Penrith Library.

Source: Nepean Times, Coroners Inquiry, Trove.

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