, 1879-05-31
THE DAlLES FIRE.
The Bmsiaess Portion Of the City Tarn'
10 lxLsS

/ At twenty minutes before D o'clock on
| Wednesday afternoon, fire broke out In
/ tie lamp room of Louis Kiss hotel, the Pio-
neer. Those parties most conversant with
the situation of affairs say that man lit a
cigar near the lamp room and threw it, with
! the blaze not extinguished, on the floor. In
an instant the fiimsy structure was IN flames,
with the equally combustible Walia Walla
! Hotel next door, catching rapidly. The
greedy flames soon licked up the fat pine ol
| which those houses were built, spreading
across to the City Drug Store, Bulls Head
Saloon and Dickerson's market. The wind
was then blowing from .ae westward as is
usual at this season. Then came the an.
looked for shower of peltiEg rain just as the
flames had spread down through the block
and caught the Mount Hood, crossing over
to Savage's paint shop and thence up to
THE EMPIRE HOUSE,
Three stories high, old and dry as finder.
1t was evident that if the wind continued
our printing Office and the Columbia Hotel
must 90. T. W. Millers large hardware
store was covered with an army of men
pouring water on the roof and sides and We
had moved out all our fixtures, expecting to
see the Empire office 90 with the rest, when
suddenly the rain came and the wind shifted
to the northeastward sweeping up through a
portion of the town hitherto supposed to be
To windward of the fire. II caught the Orc
Fino saloon, crossed to the Good Templar $
Hall, wiped out the three engine houses,
then swept away Mrs. Springers large two
story building John Moran's two small cot
taoes. next took Sutlltf & Watsons music
store, then worked westward toward Front
street, taking Marchbauks, Williams 4 CO. s
stables and crossing over to
THE NEW UMATILIA HOUSE,
The largest building in the city, about half
completed and containing $500 worth of
lumber alone The flames caught 1t and for
an hour wrapped it i'll wild splendor till at
last 1t was reduced to heap OF glowing en-
bers. Marchbank, Williams & Co. had just
mt up q new warehouse across Union street
from their stable and it caught from the
GREAT heat OF the biz hotel. In front of it
was big pile of cordwood and alongside the
postotiice was another pile. To keep these
niles of corlwood from catching, DR. Shack
ieford anda party of men made most OBJ
stinate fight. The flames We're then threat
eninp the Moabus House. the front OF which
was already smoking. Had 1t caught, there
could have been but one outcome to 1t,
Phelps' house and the Arcade would have
caught, and then the planning mill OF Charles
Kron. from which the whole town would
have burned back to the bluff. But at
THE CRITICAL MOMENT
andrew Velar,le, of Grant Hook 4 Ladder
Co., came on the roof of the binding with
two men passing him hose. 1t would not
reach and had not force enough to throw
water on the blaze. The daring fellow
crawled down to the parapet aid beat out
the blaze with his hat till several buckets of
water were passed to him. the heat began
to decrease Just then, the Moabus House was
saved the flames were kept from spreading
TO the postoifce, AID the great blaze was
then clearly detied, save that a side Issue
had cone up Court street, taking Judge
Whitten's law Office, Gilhousen 5 picture gal
lery and Condon's office. Great fears were
had for the Court House and county records
but they were all safe. Suddenly about
seven o'clock a locomotive whlstled loud
alarm and the cry went mp that
TIE D. ). y. CO. 5 SHofS
We're afre. The flames We're seen wildly
biazlns mp through the beautiful grove and
gangs os men hurrying everywhere The
want of water, all of which was taken IN
town. began to be painfully felt and the coy
little Office, built i'll Frank Dodges term as
aaent next Welded to the flames. The
steamer Mountain Queen was lying at the
leyee without steam and the great boat H.
Il. Thompson had nearly blown out cold,
but Capt. McNulty hooked on to the Queen
with his boat and the two drlfted down the
river till the steam came up and then the
Thompson towed her consort to sale moor
incs on the khckitat shore. The car-shop
canght, it is thought from sparks some OF
which bad fallen upon the roof Of the house.
The loss upon the company IS pretty heavy,
but not OF
TIE ENPLOYEES,
As at first reported. The telegraph instru-
ments of the company were about Hsed up
Capt. McNulty threw open the elegant state
rooms of the Thompson to all the ladies who
were burned out, and made all comfortable
The ladies' we're incessant in their kindness
to the firemen as well as the hundreds OF
homeless men about the streets- Till nearly
IL o'clock they walked the streets with
lunch baskets and pals of coffee, and many a
rough fellow murmered God bless you,
miss" as the ladies walked to and tro
through the binding smoke on their errand
of goodness. Considering now much prop
erty was dumped in the streets, very little is
known to be lost or stclen. Teams were 60
ing all the day following, carrying merchan.
disc to temporary places of storage until
such time as new buildings could be put up.
INCIDENTS OF THE FIRE.
1t may be truthfully said that the fire
lasted four hours and during that time, 1t
was one continuous battle with the flames,
at one point or other Two little children
of George Roland, while their parents were
looking on at the fire, got ont of the house
and were supposed to be lost for nearly four
hours. d. NJ HutchisOn saved child from
one OF the upper roonss OF the Pioneer Hotel
and when he went back to save his clothes,
found himself cut OFF by the flames He lost
everything. John Pinnell, of Yakima CONN.,
ty, found man asleep IN one of the rooms
at the Pioneer He dragged him out OF bed
and had almost to nse force to get the be-
willered man out of the burning building
John Cowdell had large piece OF platform
fall on him in front of the Empire Hotel and
was severely bruised about the face. Lincoln
Woodwork. boy Ii years old who has
worked in this office for the past nine
months, lost all his savings amounting TO
SIP 80 by the burning of his fathers house.
THE TOTAL OF LOSSES
Cannot now be accurately reckoned mp, but
VIII amount to about quarter-1lllion OF
dollars with insurance at somewhere between
siSI. 900 and 500, go Most OF the build-
ings burned will be rebuilt, but we heartily
enter our protest against any more such big
three-story tinder boxes as the Pioneer Hotel
being put up in the cen, .r of the city Is