St. Landry democrat., 1885-05-16
FIERCE FLAMES.

Forty-five Million Feet of Lumber in One
Big Bonfire at Chicago-A Desperate
Fight by the Fire observation-disclosures
Nearly 81, 5OO,OOO
CHICAGO, ILL, May 9.--For more than
eight hours yesterday the entire Fire De-
partment of Chicago, two hundred OF her
police and q thousand of her citizens
fought and struggled with one OF the
most stubborn confagrations which the
city has seen since the memorable fire of
1871. The scene was the immense
lumber district which outlies the south
western outskirts six miles from the City
Hall and less than mile from the Stock
yards. Here, lying on either side of the
Chicago River, is, or rather was, a vast
field of pine lumber, skirting the river
fronts, extending back for several blocks,
piled in stacks from forty to fifty feet
high, and averaging forty thousand feet,
to the stack.
At talf past twelve O'Clock workman
rushed into the offices of the Chicago
Lumber Company on the west side of the
river, and announced between his gasps
for breath, that there was fire in alley
twenty-eight. An alarm was at once
sounded, but ten minutes later, when the
first engines arrived on the spot, half
million feet of lumber was in flames. A
second and third alarm was
sounded, and the entire force
of the STRENGTHENING department was or
dered to the scene, but the infammable
nature of the material had placed the
flames beyond control. To make matters
worse, a scow which had been moored in
the river took fire, broke her fastenings,
was swept across the stream, and COM
municated the flames to the extensive
yards of G. w. Hinckley & Co., Bgelow
Bros, and Adams, Hastings & Co.
Twenty steamers stationed, one behind
She other, on either bank poured CO.
pfous streams of water upon the blaz-
ing lumber, but the water was so impreg-
mated with grease, and oil from the fac
tories above that it fed, rather than
quenched the flames. The wind was
blowing a hurricane, the heat was terri
BILE, and the immense volumes of black
smoke blinded and suffocated the fire.
men and retarded their efforts.
The fire continued to spread in
southerly direction, until it had covered
a district of half moon shape about half
a mile from one end to the other and
quarter of a mile deep at the center. All
this territory was ablaze, and as one pile
after another collapsed and those in the
rear took fire, throwing tongues of flame
high in the air, the scene resembled a
volcano with a vast landscape
of fire stretched out beneath.
The firemen, headed for time by
Mayor Harrison, worked with highland
main, but they were driven back, yard by
yard, and in many cases SO rapidly had
the retreat to be made that engines and
hose were left behind.
Huge pieces of burning lumber were
carried by the wind distance of half a
mile to Halstead street, and lodged on
the roofs of several frame houses, all of
which were Quilted. Scores of families,
some mile distant, removed their house,
hold goods to the prairie, while many
buried their valuables in the ground.
At nine o'clock last night the fire was
reported as under control. Several fire.
men were Frustrated by heat or injured
by falling lumber.
A partial list of the sufferers with loss
es estimated, is as follows:
Chicago Lumber Company, 26,oo0,O00
feet, $3.50 600 to 100000; insurance,
100000
Bigelow Bros, 100000 feet, $780,.
900; insurance, $125,00
Adams Hastings & Co., 5000, 900 feet,
s1oO,0o0; insurance 100000.
CIV Hinckley 6 Co., planning mill and
lumber, $26, 900; insurance $4,000.
Five dwelling houses $4,000; insured.
Other estimates placed the total loss as
81, 5000 1t is noteworthy that this is
the first occasion upon which the entire
fire department. has been called out since
1874.