Fire and loss of life.
--Between eight and nine o'clock yesterday morning a fire occurred in the third story garret room of the house on 17th street, over Jos Hill's barber shop, by which two negro children, belonging to Mr. Samuel Forsyth, lost their lives. Smoke was seen issuing from the top of the building when persons who were passing along the street ran up and found a cradle, to which was the oldest child, aged about four years, almost consumed. A bed in another part of the room in which was the youngest child was on fire, and the flames were just communicating with the rafters over head. The child in the cradle had been burnt to a coal, the one in the bed was also dead, having been smothered by the smoke. Soon after the alarm was given the firemen arrived and very quickly extinguished the flames. The fire is believed beyond doubt to have been accidental. The mother of the children who were killed says that on getting up in the morning she lit a candle, and thinks that, whilst moving about she must have dropped a spark upon the clothes in the cradle, which ignited, and in course of time biased up. The children were entirely alone in the room at the time of the sad catastrophe.The house, which belongs to the estate of Col. George N. Carrington, was very slightly injured.
