Fire at the Cathedral Hotel!
Bird’s eye view
These firemen on the roof of the Cathedral Hotel are very bold in their approach to firefighting! One heroically aims a firehose at the roof while another holds onto the flagpole with one hand as he walks around the narrow edge, three storeys up!
Onlookers from adjacent buildings make the most of their front row view, and The Age reported that on street level, hundreds of people gathered to watch, enthralled by “a thrilling spectacle when three firemen walked along the stone coping on the top floor of the building and, despite the clouds of smoke and sheets of flame which shot through the roof they ripped off the hot slate tiles and provided an outlet for the flames”.
The Cathedral Hotel was built in 1883 and demolished in 1966 to make way for the City Square.
MCK090 Inkjet print by John Gollings on Canson Platine Fibre Rag
Featured in "Newsworthy: Melbourne in photographs 1933-1936" exhibition at East Melbourne Library, October to December 2023. Exhibition caption by project volunteer, Louise McKenzie.