Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-09-23
A GREAT BLAZE,
Large Business Portion Of Eureka
in Ashes.

Over SIxty-Two Thousand Dollars
Loss of About So. OOO-SIight an
or None-Origin of the
Fire-HncIdenIs During the Con-
migration.
Yesterday morning at 2 O'Clock the
alarm OF fire, always so startling in Eu-
reka, was given. 1t was only a few min
utes later that almost everybody in town
got up to see a conflaSration raging in the
very heart OF the camp, a locality that
had escaped in all the great preceding
fires as if by a miracle, for it is made up
mostly Of frame houses built close to-
gether. The flames seemed to reach their
limits, to which they were subsequently
confined, in less than a quarter of an
hour, beginning on Main street in the
kitchen Of the Parker House Restaurant.
The Parker House adjoining attracted the
flames at once and was a mass Of fire by
the time the inmates had fairly time to
escape, some of them having to rush out
into the street in their night clothes. The
barber shop which Joined the hotel on the
south, and then on the south Of
it, the saloon of the Mooris Bros,
added at once TO the raging blaze. On the
north the flames went with a rush down
the street, and before anything could be
done to effectually arrest them all the
buildings down to M. j. Franklin Il Co.'s
fire-proof stone building were joined in
one frightful fire. Within an hour all the
buildings included within the limits
named we're smoldering ruins. There
was no wind or else the fire would prob
ably have gone further north and leaped
over the Franklin building. 1t was for
~tuuately calm and the sparks fell only a
little distance from where they assembled.
H ORIGIN OF THE IRE
There has been considerable discussion
as to the origin Of the fire, and different
persons, who claim TO have seen it early,
locate it at different points. This variety
Of opinion may be accounted for on the
ground that some Of the persons referred to
did not occupy good places to see from.
We have the statements of two gentlemen
who saw the beginning Of the fire, one
from room No. "a in the Parker House and
the other from the front Of Rescue hose.
house. They agree that the fire broke out
| III LIb hltCiitB VI NllG L al hti IlOuHb lttcb q
rant. Mr.. Bebee, the gentleman referred
to as occupying room No. 81 in the Parker
House, was awakened by the glare and the
heat only a few feet from the window at
the foot Of his bed. He looked out and
saw the fire under full Roadway in the rear
part Of the restaurant, and it was then
confined TO that apartment. Mr.. Weber,
ianitor of the Rescue Hose Company, the
other gentleman referred 10, we are in
formed, aays about the same thing. II is
stated to US, also, that the starting point
of the fire was where the kitchen stove
stood. 1t appears, also, that Mr.. Evans,
the proprietor Of the restaurant, had had
the stove overhauled and repaired, and
that it had been filled with water and a
slow fire started about the time the
restaurant was closed Sunday night, in
order to have the water heated and ready
for use on opening the restaurant the next
Yesterday morning. If this informa-
ton il correct, then it may be that some
thing went wrong with the stove during
the night, and that the fire resulted from
this accident.
SUSPICION OF I~NcESDIARIsM.
The SENTINEL is convinced that the sus-
suspicion entertained by some, that the
fire was the result Of incendiarism, has but
little to warrant It,. As 10 the origin of
the fire in the restaurant, there is GER
tainly no earthly reason for any such con-
lecture. There were two other fires, how
ever, and these, appearing suspicious, in
duced a good many persons to jump TO the
conclusion that the town was set on fire.
Some persons went so far, even, as to make
the wild remark: Eureka always burns
when a circus comes to town." Such
speculation is wild and not warranted, in
our opinion, by the iacts, as we will pro-
coed to explain.
A SECOND FIRE.
The big fire on Main street had been got
tolerably well under control when the
startling cry was heard: "Flrel hrel An
other fire; it's on Mob Hill" This an
]nouncement created the widest confusion,
sending a crowd Of men, women and
children up grade to look after their own
homes. The first who climbed the steep
hill saw a fire through the planks in the rear
apartment of the Mob Hill h~ose-house.
The back part Of the building was all
aglow, bnt the flames were so confined, a
little air only being able to get to them,
that about the time they were about to
hurst through the roof Of the little house,
the Mob Hill hose was turned on. In a
half hour all danger from this quarter was
over. 1t was hot work for a few minutes
though. When the water was at the noz-
zle the word was given and the engine
house doors, which had been kept closed
to shut in the flames, were thrown open to
make a play for the stream. Volumes OF
fire and smoke rolled out and were met
half way by a deluge of water with G. A.
Fletcher and Neil Campbell aiming 1t, The
struggle of the two element was brief.
ORIGIN Of H FIRE.
In view of al the circumstances, 1T
seems likely that somebody, after the
main fire had got under way, had hastily
used a lamp in the rear room OF the
engine house and left it near some COM
bustibles which its heat set aire; or per,
haps, being excited he may have dropped
n or turned it over. About nine out OF
ten persons lose their heads on the oocs-
sion of a fire. That it was not the WORK
Of an incendiary is evident for these rea-
sons. In the first place, it could not have
been act before the main fire had been
raging nearly an hour and had been gov
under subsection; and in the second place,