The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-05 00:00:00

4 ' SEPTEMBER 5, 1848.
,

Seventeen whole blocks, the pier, the Columbia-street
market, two bridges, and near one hundred boats, are
destroyed. Most of the boats were heavily laden.
We regret to learn that several lives have been lost.
Two men were drowned in the basin, near the foot of
Maiden-lane. Tbey were floating on a raft, and in the
midst of the conflagration fell off and sunk. The owner
of the steam-boat William Seymour, Benjamin Wake-
man, is missing. A man named Hardely, an Irishman,
died from over exertion. A man named Johnson, and
several others, are missing.
Soma 8,000 or 10,000 barrels of flour were burnt on the
pier. The loss of property in the basin was immense.
The loss is roughly estimated at two millions of dollars.
We fear our local insurance companies are overwhelmed.
The property on the pier was insured abroad. The
Swiftsure and Eckford Towboat lines lose tremendously.
Hundreds of our business men are utterly ruined. Four
buildings were blown up with powder.
At midnight the fire was burning in forty places, but
it is completely under control. There is nu wind, and
the rain has ceased. _ _

The Argus says:—No estimate of the value of pro-
perty is yet attainable. We hear of two forwarding
lines that estimate property under their charge to the
amount of 90,000 dolls., all consumed. Another line
suffers to an amount of from 60,000 dolls. to 80,000
dolls. The loss of flour afloat, and in store, is not less
than 10,000 barrels.
The urea of the fire embrace.; many acres, perhaps
fifty or sixty, of the most compact and valuable part of
the city. It includes at least twenty squares. Amidst
the ruins which everywhere meet the eye, it is difficult
to trace the outlines of the former state of things ;
but those familiar with the city will perceive the ex-
tent of this most calamitous visitation, by a few ge-
neralities.

Broadway, from the interseetion of Herkimer, to the
south corner of Hudson-street, on the west side and to
Van Schatick's variety store, on the east side, nearly half
a mile, is, with all its structures and stores, including the
Eagle Tavern, the Townsend House, and the United
States Ibtel, level with the earth.

From Broadway to the river, including the ranges of
lofty stores on Quay-street, throughout nearly the entire
space above mentioned, all is a heap of ruins.
All the cross streets entering Broadway, Herkimer,
Bleecker, Lyditui, Hamilton, Division and Hudson, west
as farUniun and Dallies-streets, are swept away. Amaz-
ing effort preserved Gcold's great carriage and coach
establishment ; everything on the surrounding streets
being demolished.
North, the flying cinders, with which the air was
filled, caught the Columbia-street market, and of that
large structure nothing remains. The adjacent buildings
were saved by the prompt efforts of the two Schenectady
fire companies. But the scene of the most striking and
absolute desolation is the pier. Scarcely a vestige of it
remains. Throughout its entire length, from Hamilton-
street to the cut opposite the Boston depot, it is utterly
consumed, including the wharves, warehouses, nearly all
the shipping in the basin, and outside the pier, tow-
boats, barges, canal boats, huge floating warehouse arks,
eith all their valuable and vast contents of goods and
products, the three bridges at Columbia, State, and Ha-
milton-streets, lumber yards, flour stores, in short,
everything that floated or teemed with life and value in
that great mart yesterday morning.
The scene in State-street beggars all description.
Thousands, flying from the conflagration, pressed every
conceivable vehicle into their service, depositing goods,
furniture, families, children, everything animate
and inanimate. Every point in that wide street,
—at the Exchange, at the City Bank, at
the corners of all the intersecting streets, in
front of St. Peter's Church, all along the Parks, and
finally at the State Hall and City Hall—were crowded
with bales, boxes, furniture, goods of every description,
&c. No point was deemed too remote from the de-
vouring element. The stores everywhere were closed,
or were only opened to the flying citizens and their
effects.
Two buildings were blown up, in the hope of arrest-
ing the progress of the fire—one, belonging to Mr. J. I.
Boyd, in Broadway, and the other to Mr. John Knower,
corner of Hudson and Liberty streets, but with little
effect.
All the insurance companies suffer largely, if not ru-
inously.

Among the shipping destroyed was the schooner
Cotuit, of Boston, arrived yesterday morning, and the
schooner Eliz i Matilda, also of Boston, seriously da-
maged. Some 20 vessels below the Basin were hastily
drawn out in the river and preserved. The Isaac New-
ton and '.Rip Van Winkle steamers were :also rescued
with much difficulty.

ADDITION AL PARTICULARS.
(From the Albany Journal, Aug. IS.)
Fire, though a good servant, is indeed a fearful mas-
ter. And fearfully did this mad element rage yester-
day. Our city is desolate! The ruin is appalling! The
spirit sinks and the heart sickens in contemplating such
frightful losses —such wide-spread ruin. Painful, most
painful, is the task of gathering up the afflicting details.
Most of the commercial portion of the city, with
fifteen or twenty densely populated squares, is a black
and smouldering ruin. From Herkimer-street, where
the fire broke out, to Colnrnbia-street, where it was
arrested, in distance, is more than half a mile! And all
that work of destruction was accomplished in five hours.
There could, therefore, have been little time to snatch
property from the rapacious flames.
Amid all this suffereng, there is much cause for grati-
tude. When the conflagration was at its height—when
more than half the city was threatened, and when no
human arm could save, a kind Providence interposed !
'rho wind suddenly changed from south to north-west,
and this change brought with it abundant and continued
rain. Fires that had extended to several buildings in
the vicinity of the burnt district, were providentially ex-
tinguished by the rain.
This great loss, superaddod to the large sums swal-
lowed up during the winter and spring, by kindred ca-
lamities, has impaired the fortunes of wealthy people,
impoverished hundreds of the middling class, and utterly
ruined hundreds of poor hard-working families.
The fire ran over portions of the city that had been
laid waste by recent conflagrations, and upon which new
buildings had recently been finished. The Columbian
Hotel and Fort Orange are again demolished. Mr. S.
F. Shepard, who had erected new buildings and resumed
business, is again burnt out. We are happy to learn,
however, that he saved about two thousand dollars' worth
of goods.

The steam-boats Isaac Newton and Rip Van Winkle
were both on fire, but were got off into the river and pre-
served.

Eleven tow-boats, between forty and sixty canal boats,
ono small steam-boat, one schooner, and two floats, were
destroyed,

This disastrous fire originated in the stable of Mr.
Callaghan, which adjoins that of Mr. Johnson. It is
not known how it originated.
The ruins cover an area of 200 acres, every foot of
which was densely covered with buildings. There were
more buildings upon it than upon any other equal space
in the city. Four-fifths of the buildidgs burned were
brick, must of them large and substantial, and many of
them three or four stories in height.
Until five o'clock it was feared that the flames could
not be checked south of State-street ; but about this
hour the wind changed to the north, and gave new hope
to those ready to despair.
But while this change of wind was of great service in
the heart of the town, it proved expensive to the pro.
perty on the south of Lydius-street, between l)allius
and Broadway, and Lydius and Herkimer. All the
property within these boundaries was destroyed after
the wind changed. No fears of its destruction were en-

tertained previously.
There have been several lives lost. Mr. Johnson,
clauehter, and Grand-child, --t t.
thN
Loluinbian, were horribly burzud. 'The child and Mr.
J. are dead; the others are not expected to recover.
\Ve have rumours of other deaths ; but cannot trace

them.
The firemen did as well as they could; but it seemed
impotent to attempt anything against the fury of the
flames; no human power could stay them. Our neigh-
bours from Greenbush, West Troy, and Troy, came to
the assistance of our firemen, and did efficient service.
At one o'clock, A.m., the wooden buildings on fire in
Union-street looked threatening, and the alarm was
sounded. At this moment the Cohoes Engine Company
came into the city, having left their village at nine
o'clock—dragging- their engine all the way by hand.
They at once proceeded to the place of alarm, and by
their timely aid the fire was checked.
When it was ascertained that the engines were unable
to cope with the flames, it was determined to blow up
some buildings in Hudson-street, and Broadway. Capt.
Stone, of the Ordnance Department, and now stationed
at the Arsenal, volunteered his services, and three build-
ings were blown up, and the flames thus kept on the
south side of Hudson-street.
Not more than four or five buildings are left standing
between Herkimer and Hamilton and Union streets and
the river. The desolation is complete. Mr. Akin's
buildings, south of Herkimer-street and near Dallius•
street, are badly scorched ; but nothing was burned
south of that line.

scene on the placid and tranquil water still more
sublime than on land. The shrill cries of the respec-
tive commanders of the menaced vessels, the long,
continuous, and savage howls of the mariners and
sailors, in their endeavour to draw their crafts from
the theatre of the conflagration, all tended to impress
the spectator with the grandeur of the dreadful cala-
mity that had befallen the city of Constantinople.
Towards nine o'clock the fire had spread out in an
awful manner. In one direction it was travelling at
a rapid rate towards the Calmoumjilar, in another
towards the Uzun Charski, whilst on the other it
was raging at the Odun Kapoussi. Notwithstand
ing great efforts were made to prevent its spread-
ing towards the bill, which gradually rises until it'
reaches the crest, on which stands the Mosque of
Suleymanieh, and close to that the palaces of several
vizirs, the Sheik-ul Islam Kappous,i (Porte of the
Ulemas), an I other extensive public and private
buildings, with their hanging gardens and kiosks, it
was all of no avail. The houies were destroyed one
after the other. The flames rushed up the walls, and
stood like pyramids of fire in the air. At length, at
about eleven o'clock, the pinnacle of one of the
minarets of Suleymanieh, on the extreme height, and
fully one mile from the scene of destruction,
caught fire. A singular spectacle indeed it was, to
see this airy meteor burning and blazing away,
whilst the flames in a vast body kept beating like
waves against the angle of the Sheik-ul Islam's
palace, after having destroyed, in rapid succession,
all the intervening buildings. At about midnight
it had reached Baluk Bazaar, in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of the new bridge, and
great anxiety was entertained respecting the Drug
Bazaar, which is a splendid building, well known to
tourists who visit this city. In the opposite direction
it had reached the Skemnegelar, and was proceeding
at a rapid rate towards the Oun Kapan. The efforts
made by the Turks to extinguish the fire were useless;
they everywhere ceased, and were mostly employed
in pulling down buildings. 'With the poor inhabi-
tants it was a general sauve qui peut ; indeed, many
were so surrounded by the flames as to be unable to
escape, and were burned to death. Near Oun
Kapan a dreadful destruction of life occurred, and
it is said that upwards of twenty persons have
perished. At two o'clock in the morning the
fire had sensibly abated in its violence for want
of fuel to aliment it, and at about half-past three
no more danger was anticipated. The fire has
consumed, according to a detailed estimate, about
2,500 shops and 500 houses ; about 40 of the latter
were splendid palaces belonging to the Sheik-ul-
Islam, Moustapha Pasha, Said Pasha, Irret Pasha,
Hassan Pasha, and others. The general loss is
calculated at averaging from 2,000,0001. to 4,000,000/.
sterling, but some have carried it to 5,000,000/. We
should state it at, approximately, about 2,500,000/.
To account for this great loss, it must be care-
fully understood that vast depositaries of merchan-
dise were kept there, besides whole bazaars of oil,
fruit, wax, rice, spices, tallow, coffee, sponges, &c.,
as well as the establishments of the knife-grinders,
wholesale grocers, nut sellers, &c. In addition to
these must be noted nineteen khans, seven mosques,
four baths, two public granaries, 15,000 barrels of
rice belonging to the Pasha of Egypt, a Government
steam mill and seventeen vessels, and among the rest
an Austrian and Russian vessel, &c. This fire ex-
ceeds that of Pera, two months back, not only in the
extent, but in the value of the objects destroyed.
Here people are positively ruined, as their all was
there. A fearful night of havoc indeed it was. The
Sultan went incognito to the scene of destruction,
and subsequently took up his position in a steamer in
the arsenal.
The alarm guns have just been fired, and it is said
that a serious conflagration has broken out at Kara-
, gmairuk, towards the Seven Towers.