Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-05-14
FIERCE FLAMES.
Forty-fve Million Feet of Lumber In Ont
Big Bonfire at Chicage-A Desperate
Fight by the Fire Department-Losses
Nearly RI 300, 900.

Forty-five Million Feet of Lumber In One
Big Bonfire at Chicage-A Desperate
Fight by the Fire Department-Losses
Nearly 81, 800, 900.
CHICAGO, ILL, May 9.-For more than
eight hours yesterday the entire Fire De-
partment of Chicago, two hundred OF hei
police and q thousand OF her citizens
fought and struggled with one OF the
| most stubborn CONGREGATIONS 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 aud less than mile from the Stock
yards. Here, lying on either side of the
Chicago River, is, or rather was, 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 alf past twelve O'Clock a 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
frst engines arrived on the spot, half
million feet of lumber was in flames. A
second and a third alarm was
sounded, and the entire force
of the STRENGTHENING department was or
dered to the scene, but the inhammable
nature of the material had placed the
flames beyond control. To make matters
worse, 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., Bigelow
Bros, and Adams, Hastings & Co.
Twenty steamers stationed, one behind
the other, on either bank poured CO.
pious 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
district of a half moon shape abou, half
D
quarter of 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 fame
high in the air, the scene resembled a
vomiting volcano with a vast landscape
of fire stretched out beneath.
The firemen, headed for time by
Mayor Harrison, worked with might and
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 a distance of half
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, 26,000,0 900
feet, s+5o,00O to 100000; insurance,
$4,000
Bigelow Bros, 10, 900, 900 feet, $780,
900; insurance, $4,000.
Adams Hastings & Co., 5000, 900 feet,
100000; insurance $1,000
CIV. Hinckley & Co., planning mill and
lumber, 500, 900; insurance $4,000.
Five dwelling houses $4,000; insured
Other estimates placed the total loss as
$1,50O,0Oo 1t is noteworthy that this is
the first occasion upon which the entire
fire department has been called out since
1874.