Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-03-12
The Panama Fire.

brought us news of great conflagra-
ton at Panama, and the star and
Herald, just received, gives further
particulars.
On the evening of the 10th instant
Panama was the scene of one of those
destructive conhagrations which dur
ing the past ten years have become
periodical and given to the city an
unenviable reputation. The years
1S6l-7O-74 will be noted for the heavy
losses sustained by fires in Panama,
none of which have been more de-
structive, for the time the fire ragged,
than the one we now record.
Smoke was first seen rising from
hat store of Gutierrez, in Gale Com
mercio, directly in front of the private
entrance to the Grand Hotel. Soon
after flames burst from the building,
and in IL few moments the stores on
either side, and forming the block,
were all ablaze. OF the origin of the
fire nothing definite has yet been
made public, but it is supposed to have
started from spirit lamp or stove
used in the business of pressing hats,
and which had not been properly
looked after before the store was
closed, about half an hour previous to
the discovery of the fire.
Soon after the first alarm the Grand
Hotel became ignited, and notwith-
standing every eXertion on the part of
the proprietor, George LeOw, and the
use of the hotel fire-pump, in the short
space of fifteen minutes the roof fell
in, and in much less than an hour
nothing but bare walls were left of the
| finest hotel building on the Pacific
Coast south of San Francisco. The
prolonged dry weather had rendered
every particle of woodwork about the
| building so combustible that the burn
ing timbers and sparks set fire to the
house in many places at the same time,
and the fire-pump, which would have
been serviceable enough for an inter-
nal conflagration against which it was
| intended to be used, was useless
| against one from without of the nature
described. .UE g
The rapidity with which the hotel
burned down made it almost impossi-
bic to save anything from the build
ing, and the proprietor had u narrow
escape from suffocatiOn in endeavoring
to reach his bedroom to procure his
safe key, and was fortunate in escap-
ing with his lite, without so much as
change of clothing. The Grand Ho-
tel once fully wrapt in flame, no hope
was left for the safety of the adjoining
property, and those interested set
! about to secure what valuables they
could.
The fire had now reached such pro-
portions as TO be beyond all control,
and with a strong wind to fan the
flames, and no effort to check them,
rapidly swept all before it, causing n
destruction to property of. over one
million dollars in value. The reason
why so much property was destroyed
in SO little time was partly owing to
the high wind blowing, as we'll as to
the total absence of any organization
on the part of the authorities or pri-
vate individuals to check the flames,
and the highly cOmbustible nature of
all woodwork after two months of dry
| weather.
The police and soldiers were as
usual useless, and more of a nuisance
than otherwise. They appeared on
the scene armed with rifles and fixed
bayonets, and rendered no service
whatever. After while they got
drunk and became insolent, and in
some eases were with difficulty res
trained from adding to the contlagra-
ton, instead of using their efforts to
check it. We noticed one gold-laced
officer Oh the Plaza, who claimed to
be from Bogota, insolently abusive,
because one of his men, stupidity
drunk, was prevented breaking in UNI
necessarily the door of a store, and
thus creating a draft endangering the
entire block. Had there been an or
ganized body of a dozen intelligent
men, under control and command as
firemen, the flames need not have eX-
tended beyond the block in which
they originated.