The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-05-26
The Great Fire in Qaebec.

The disastrous confagration in Quebec,
which was referred to in our dispatches yester-
day morning, occurred in the quarter St.
Roch, and so far as our present information
goes equaled, if it did hot exceed the great
flies of 1915 and 1865. The fire broke out about
l o clock Tuesday morning, and had its origin
in the vicinity Of Crown and Queen streets,
where the buildings are of wood and inhabited
by the poorer classes. The wing was blowing
strong from the east, and tue copfagration
soon got under tremendous Roadway. The
Chdonicle of Tuesday morning says:
As the wind rose, the flames gathered
strength and intensity, leaping with fearful vi
olence, from one building to another, sweeping
before 1T everything of d combustible nature
TIE wind directed the tendency of the flames
towards the Marine General Hospitals, run
ming through Queen aud King streets, which
is near on the line with the waters edge, and
at the time our reporter left, half-past three,
this morning, fears were entertained OF the
burning of the Marine Hospital.
In an upward direction, the fire had gained
as far as the wall OF the Jacques Cartier Hal,
on st. Francis street, and in this direction had
carried everything before it up to the street
known as "Vieux Points or Old Bridge street.
The projecting caves OF the Jacques Cartier
Hall caught fire in several places, but owing
to its height from the ground, sufficiently
strong pressure OF water could not be obtained
for a long period of time to reach the spot
where the fire had caught. After considerable
difficulty, ladders were spliced together, and
| lifted to the side wall of the Hall, upon which
the hose was raised, but not before great
| deal of time had been lost When we left this
section of the fire, the firemen were playing on
| the burnt cinders, and there remained prob
ability OF saving the building. The forces of the
| Fire Brigade were next concentrated on old
| Bridge street, which runs from Waller street to
| the River St Charles. Here, number OF cit
| liens, aided by some cler9ymen of the r.. G.
| Church who were present directing, set to
| work and tore down all the temporary fencings
and other small buildings, galleries, ratings,
&C., that could be disposed of by the hand
The fire had also, in its ravages, continued to
sweep along with terrible force, through King
and Queen streets, wrapping up in its embrace
es over fifty houses at time.
As an instance of the rapidity with which
/ it spread, We noticed at one spot where fam
| lily, In its despair, had gathered together few
| traps of furniture, which they had few mo-
| ments before removed from their burning
| house, more than two acres away, but before
| they could gather sufficient cOmposure to
realize their awful situation, they had with a
number of Other persons, to flee before this
| terrible scourage, which has for the third time,
| befallen this unfortunate section of our CITY,
With considerable difficulty, we succeeded in
moving along King street, with the view OF
| getting back to Crown street. to an interesting
point around which the fire had passed, but,
owing to the clouds OF dust and tire which
| seemed to fall with the velocity of hail in a
thunderstorm, we found it, for the moment,
impossible TO carry out our intended wish. In
King street, where it would appear the poorer
portion of the st. Roch's population reside, the
most appalling scenes could be witnessed.
While passing the door of house, few sec
onls before it fell prey to the devourng ele-
ment, an old man seated on the door step, was
crying piteously to the passers by who needed
HIM not, to remove nom his dwelling his un.
fortunate bed-ridden daughter. A short time
afterwards, the poor thing was removed from
the house on stretcher and was taken to one
of the uptown Hospitals.
At the time the above report was made up il
was estimated that 800 buildings had been con
sumed and $500, 600 worth of property destroy.
ell. The fire was still raging. Five or six
thousand people are made homeless.