Connecticut western news., 1871-10-20
The (,hicNgO Fire.

we'll be termed national calamity
 Sad, indeed. are the incidents told of the fire. Women in the pains of child birth. and patients who had been moved from beds of sickness to savestheir lives which ut the best were nearly spent, were all exposed to the -ain and the cold raw winds. Several deaths occurred at Lincoln Park, and three women brought children into the world only to die Trains were loaded to their fullest ca pacity, taking people away who, in many instances, have no place to go, yet they cannot stay here; and every train is obliged to leave five times as many pas sengers as tehy carried away. Every pre- caution was taken by the authorities to guard the people.
 A journal describing the scene during tae confagration, says: The sky was lighted up for miles around, and the river looked like a stream of blood. Hardly had the families which occupied the district time to escape with their lives, and as to saving their household furniture, which to most of them was their all, it was not to be thought of | Women, half-clad, ran screaming in the streets, baby in. one arm, while little children chung to them with terror. At every attempt to stay the flames the fremen were driven back baffled and dis heartened, yet they worked manfully and disputed the ground inch by inch. | Over the furniture which strewed the streets all went running in the widest confusion, each person bent only on saving himself and family and caring nothing for his neighbor. Many in their wild endeayors to escape were knocked down and trampled upon, and some even killed. Many cartmen and draymen naturally strove to their utmost to save their horses. But in cases of fire horses seem to lose all the instinct which under ordinary circumstances would save them from danger, and stand stock still in their stables, their Hanks and sides shak- ing in the agony of terror, and utterly refuse to be driven from thelr stables which, poor beasts, they have always considered their place of safety where no harm can reach them. On this aw- full night, above even the roar of the flames and the crash of falling timbers, could be heard the shrieks of the horses ringing out in the night air. They would not be driven away, but, stSpefed with fear, fell down in their stables and were roasted alive, and the sickening odor of burning flesh was added to the inde- scribable and nauseating odor which ac- companies burning buildings when water has been showered upon them.
 A spectator, citizen of Chicago, in describing the scene, says We could think of nothing else but hell. The flames in some places like huge waves, dashing to and fro, leaping up and down, turning and twisting, and pouring now and then great column of smoke and hundreds of feet in the air, like solid perpendicular shaft of molten metal In other places it would dart out in long streaks like mammoth anacondas, with hissing, fiery tongues. Then the ser- pentine shapes would stoop down over the blazing path into the yet unburnt buildings, which seemed pierced and kindled instantaneously. There were also pillows of flame that rolled along like water, submerging everything in it's course. Now and then as some explo- sive material was consumed, the place would seem like the crater of vast vol cano, puffs of smoke and flashes of light and millions of sparks and cinders scattered in every direction. Sometimes the air would be full of them, and gusts of wind would float them hither and thither like fiocks of fre-birds. Occa- sionally there were cinders of more than two feet in length. Showers of these were falling-actually raining down everywhere. Our faces were stung, and our clothing now and then set on fire, until we got wet umbrellas and held them as shields over us. There was a terrible fascination in gazing upon the scene. It was unearthly, hideous, ter rife Our eyes seemed riveted so that we could not withdraw them. There were miles of fire, mountains of flame, waves of light, flashes, clouds, brilliant scintillations. With the aid of glasses we could see the streets thronged with people flying for their lives. Children were carried, screaming with terror, women were shrieking, men shouting, and all running. We saw some old and sick and helpless carried on stretch. ers-some apparently demented or stu. pefed were dragged along, Close to tbeir heels, in hot pursuit, came the belching, roaring cracking flames. In some places they actually advanced as fast as a man ran. The most awful o1 all was the thunderous roar that seemed to roll upward and outward from the centre of the huge holocaust now there would be report like the boom of dis. tant guns, again came a snapping like the rattling of musketry. Horses rushed like maniacs through the streets. One splendid team, attached to a coach, ran over the Van Buren street bridge, which had been charred and weakened just as the mad horses had passed the centre il gave way, ,and they plunged down through the lurid glare into the scarlet river be- low.
 The following reliable and graphic de, scription of the fire has been furnished by gentleman who participated in the work of subduing the flames during theil continuance
 None but an eyewitness can form ar idea of the fury and power of the fire. fiend as he revelled among the palatla buildings and warehouses on the soutI side, with the wind blowing hurricane At times 1t scanned but the work of moment for the fire to enter the soutt ends of buildings fronting on Randolph , Lake, and Water streets, and reappea1 at the north doors and windows, belch ing forth in fierce flames which otter licked the opposite buildings, and the1 the flames issuing forth from the build ings on both sides of the street would unite and present a solid mass of fire completely filling the street from side tt side, and shooting upward hundred feet into the air above the housetops il their mad career. Thus was street afte street filled with flame, and the exulta ton of the tire-6end was given over t,
 in roar which can only be equalled b, s combining the noise of the ocean whel s its waters are driven during tempes
 upon the rocky beach with the howl o !, the blast. Hugh walls would topple an,
 fall into the sea of fire without apparent } ly giving sound, as the roar of tn D fierce element was so great that all mino sc,a.,ds sxz.cl lsarxrol c>