Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-11-22
THE BOSTON FIRE.
A Comprehensive Review OF tho Great
COnfla grafton,

phJuruay evening, when the flames were
discovered bursting from the fourth floor
OF large, five story granite building on
the corner of Kingston and Summer
streets. The building was occupied by
Tibbitts, Baldwin 81 Davis, dry goods
jobbers; A. X. Young & Co., manufac-
turers Of skirts and corsets, and Damon,
Temple 81 Co., dealers in fancy goods. 1t
stood in part of the city which is as des-
olate after dark as Broad street is in New
York The heavy dealers in domestic and
foreign dry goods had their headquarters
near here. A. T. Stewards great branch
concern was within stones throw. Jor-
dan, Marsh & Co., have their wholesale and
retail house close by. j. M. Beebe q Co.
gave their name to magnificent block in
which they have carried on splendid es-
tabishment. Nearly everybody in this
district, where there are no dwelling
houses and few retail shops, chad gone
away for the night, and the fire might
have been burning long before it was dis
covered. 1t is supposed to have caught
in the engine room and crept up the stair
way. This is very probable theory, for
few moments from the time it was first
seen 1t was bursting from every floor in
the building. The edifice was crowned
by that curse of all our cities, Mansard
roof. Instantly, the tinder. box
ornament was in blaze and the
flame was leapIng across the narrow
streets to meet similar inflammable
roof on the other side, while showers OF
cinders and burning fragments, carried
aloft by the blast created in the hatchway,
fell upon the lower buildings on either
hand. The alarm was promptly sounded,
but there occurred one of those fatal mis-
haps which nobody knows exactly how to
account for. 1t was thirtysix minutes
before an engine arrived upon the ground.
The Boston Fire Department had high
reputation of efficiency, and the last two
days have proved that its members in
general have much of the true heroic
stamp in danger, and do their duty
silently, as a matter of course, day and
night, until they fall to the ground
through sheer exhaustion. The reason
given for the delay is that the horses
were all sick, and the engines had to be
drawn by hand. Even so, the delay was
unreasonable. Besides there were we'll
horses rigLt in Boston, and if hacks and
horse cars were all running, 1t can only
be through great mismanagement that
steam fire engines could not run too. BY
the time the water was brought to bear
the fire had become conflagration.
Both sides of Kingston street and both
sides of Summer street were blazing,
making two fire lanes in which the heat
was absolutely insupportable. Then
the corner building fell, scattering
fire in every direction, and the
disaster began to assume a threatening
aspect. All the engines in Boston were
summoned, and telegraphs were sent for
aid from the neighboring towns. The
great height of the warehouses and the
narrowness of the streets proved serious
difficulties. In hardly any case could q
stream OF water be thrown upon the back
part of the roofs, and it was on the roofs
that, after the first outbreak, the fire
almost invariably caught Nor was it
possible to approach, in these lanes, very
near the burning buildings. The firemen
put up barricades for their protection,
but the barricades were soon consumed
They carried hose up the roofs, but the
height was so great that very little water
could be forced through them. After q
while some large establishments, sup
posed to be in flames, were blown up.
no particular path. There was moder.
ately strong wind, but they travelled
right in the path of it. They made their
own current of air and followed that,
now to one side, now to the other
Wherever they went they found
a Mansard roof to feed upon.
Wherever brand was shot into the air
it had a good chance of falling on Man
sard roof. 1t 10 common belief that the
Mansard roofs have cost Boston
$25,000,000.
COURSE OF THE FLAMES SATURDAY NIGHT.
From the corner of Summer and King
ston streets the fire travelled simultane-
ously in all directions. Southwark, it
burned about half block. Westward, it
took both sides of Summer street, past
Arch, Chauncy, and Hawley; and then
ran diagonally to near the northeast cor.
ner of Summer and Washington, sparing
the corner building, occupied by Rob-
bins, Appleton & Co., of the American
Watch Company, and Andrew G. Mudges,
fancy goods, but taking everything at the
rear and side of it. Thence it ran along
the east side of Washington street, as far
north as Milk, that is to say, within few
feet of School street, where the Parker
House, the City Hall, and the old corner
book store are situated. On the west side
of Washington street nothing was burned,
but many of the shops were scorched,
and the glass was nearly all broken. From
Kingston street eastward the fire took
both sides of Summer street and Bedford,
and never stopped until it reached the
water, destroying the wharyes and depot
of the Hartford & Erie Railroad. Mean
while it had swept northward along Dew
onshire, Federal, and Congress streets,
toward the water. There were some ten
ement houses, liquor shops, and other
buildings of the poorer class, and before
midnight the wretched occupants were
turned into the street. The general di
rection of the flames at the time was
northwest, and from about Congress
street to Washington it formed one i'm
passable barrier, moving closer and closer
toward State street, and the great fnan.
cial center of New England. Milk
street was destroyed by ten O'Clock, and
toward morning the fire reached the rear
OF the Post Office, the front of which is
on State street. The mails were re.
moved to the Custom House, and
thence taken last night to Faneuil
Hall, where the distribution of let,
ters began this morning, nothing hav,
ing been lost. What stopped the flames
in this quarter nobody seems to know
The buildings were no whit more sub
stantial than those which had crumbled
to fragments behind them, but they were
not seriously menaced until evening
South of them was mere heap of Goals
and ashes, and the firemen were able to
to concentrate their efforts here. Al
any rate, nothing was injured except the
Post-Offlce and the Merchants Exchange
On the corner Of Washington and Milk
streets were two currents of flames, one
sweeping northward from Franklin, the
other westward along Milk street. One
of the choicest historical buildings of Bos.
ton is the Old South Church. Sober citi
zens, who had borne the loss oftheir own
fortunes without word, were seen abso.
lutely frantic with distress as the contla-
grafton approached this venerable pile.
1t is modest brick building with wood
en- blinds, and il seemed impossible that
it should escape; but here the fire, which
had destroyed stone and iron as if they
had been straw, was strangely stopped.
Save few broken windows, and little
blistered paint, the old church is unhurt,
and battered safe lies in the door,
E,rfhar o1ouo On MIL ofreaf tho Il ra on