The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-05-15
A GREAT FIRE.

q Disastrous Confiagration in the Lusnber
District of Chiea yc-About Forty Million
Feet of Lumber Totally Destroyed-The
Entire Loss Placed at 5000, 900; Insur-
ance. S4S3, 500 - Probable Cause of the
Fire.
CHICAGO, May 9.-The new lumber dis
tTic;, located on the south fork of the south
branch of the Chicago River between
Thirty-f1th and TAirty-ninth streets, was
visited by an extensive and destructive fire
yesterday afternoon, which caused loss of
nearly, if not quite, $3.50, 900. A high wind,
rising at times all. ost to gale, was blow
ing from the southwest, and to this fact
chiefly, was. due the extent Of the conflagra-
ton, IS well as the danger, imminent for
several hours, that it would be much more
extensive.
The fire of yesterday started near the
center of the southern portion of the yard
of the Chicago Lumber Company. The
men employed about the yard were all eat
ing their dinner at the north end of the
yard when it broke out An alarm
was at once turned in but it was
some time before the department
reached the scene, and by the time the
first engine arrived the flames were spread
ing fast, and an acre or more, covered
thickly with huge lumber piles forty to
sixty feet high, were all ablaze.
The origin of the fire is not definitely
known. Some were inclined to think
spark from tug in the river branch to the
southwest had caused it. The wind was
blowing strong from that direction, and
such an explanation is not unreasonable
1t was seen at once by the firemen who
first reached the locality that they had a
hard fight before them, and that not
only the entire south branch lumber dis
trict was endangered but also Fowler
Brothers packing house, lying across the
river to the SOUTH the residence districts
to the east and north, and perhaps
the Union Stock 7 ards and the great pack
ing houses farther south. Accordingly
the first alarm was followed in close sue
cession by second, then second and third
combined, and finally by two special
alarms. Before three o'clock there were
thirty engines on the scene. The fire-tug,
A. Mosher, and later in the afternoon two
other tugs, the Mccormick and the Uncle
Sam, did effective work from the river.
From the place of starting the fire spread
rapidly in all directions. 1t crept back to
the westward against the wind until it
reached the railroad track. The lumber piles
extended no further west than there More
rapidly the fire extended to the southwark,
and stopped only when the river,
which makes sharp bend at the south
ern limit of the Chicago Lumber Company's
yards, was reached. In an incredibly short
time the flames traversed the yard to the
river on the east. The air overhead was
filled with dense smoke and flying cinders,
some OF them as large as mans hand.
These the wind hurled, literal shower of
fire, upon the yard of Bigelow Bros. on the
east side of the river. An old scow be-
longing to the Chicago Dock Company and
lying in the river between the two yards
caught and burned to the waters
edge. The fire started in raging race
across Bigelow's yard, and all attempts to
stop it were futile. Even before it reached
the eastern boundary Hinkley's planning
mill had caught fire from flying cinders,
and in less than an hour the establishment
was in ruins. The entire southern half of
Bigelow's yard was consumed, and from
| this the fire spread to the yard of Adams,
Hastings & Co., lying to the southwark
along the river. 1t was only after long and
desperate fighting by the fire department,
| and after two-thirds or more of the yard
was consumed, that the flames were finally
checked and the fire was placed under con-
troll.
The estimated losses of the four firms
| = L. -