Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-01
WHOLE NO. l0,929.
FURIOUS FLAMES.
DISASTROUS CONFEDERATION IN
SAN FRANCISCO.
Bancroft's Printing Establishment
Wiped Out - Details
of the Fire.
Especial BY TELEGRAPH TO THE REcoRD-uxIoN. !

SAN Francisco, April 3Oth-A few min
utes before 4 o'clock this afternoon an
alarm was sounded for fire. which was dis.
covered in the building on the south side of
Market street, between Third and Fourth.
owned by A. L. Bancroft & Co., stationers
and publishers, and occupied by them and
l.. ~ l.. Emanuel furniture manufacturers
and dealers. The building was FIVE stories
nigh, and the entire east side and two top
stories OF the west side of it were occupied
by Bancroft & Co., while the three lower
stories and basement of the west side were
tenanted by L. & E. Emanuel Although
the fire department responded promptly to
the summons, the infammable nature of
the contents of the entire building gave
the fire good start, and within fifteen
minutes after the first alarm had been
sounded second had been turned in.
Nothing definite is known as to where the
hre started, or what was the cause.
Some assert that it started in
Emanuers basement; others that it
originated in Bancroft's engine-room.
1t apparently, however started in the
lower part of the structure, near one of the
elevator shafts, which it assembled like a
rocket, and spread itself over every floor of
the building in very short space OF time.
The hopes which were at first entertained
that large portion of the contents of the
| building could be saved soon vanished and
/
flames to the building in which it had
started; but even in this the fire depart
ment was unsuccessful. The bursting hose
and westerly wind which was blowing
operated against them. Every engine in
the city was called into requsition, but fears
that this might be inadequate to the
emergency caused Chief Scannell to
summon assistance from the Oakland Fire
Department, which was promptly rendered.
Meanwhile the fire continued to rage. and
soon every window in the burning build
ing fronting on Market street was
CURTAINED WITH A SHEET OF FLAME,
While from the roof of the building dense
clouds of smoke intermittently penetrated
by monster tongues of flame, rose high in
the air and fioated eastward over the bay
toward Oakland While the whole interior
of the building was thus completely
wrapped in flames, crash was heard, and
the top flooring, on which the high print
ing presses and plant had been standing,
gave way, precipitating the half-molten
mass of metal to the floor below. This
III turn being half-eaten through by the
| flames, gave way, and soon each floor in
turn, crashing downward, until nothing of
the interior was left The fire, however,
had not confined its ravages to the Ban
croft building alone, but had leaped the
narrow width of Stevenson street in the
rear, and soon had ignited dozen or more
smaller houses, used mostly as dwellings.
Most of them were entirely consumed, or
so badly wrecked that they will have to be
razed. The flames also spread to the
| buildings on each side of the doomed Ban
croft edifice.
FALLING WALLS.
| About Sis the rear part of the west wall
Of Bancrofts fell with crash, demolish-
ing small building alongside it. fronting
on Stevenson street, which took fire, and
| buried several men under the debris. All
were rescued with but slight injuries Soon
after this the rear wall fell and this was
| followed by the front portion of the west
well. Adjoining Emanuel's, on the west,
and fronting on Market street, was two
story building, occupied as a piano sales
room. trunk factory and frame factory.
When the last wall fell it brought down
with it this bull ling, which was fattened
so thoroughly that no semblance of a
building remained. 1t was not until about
an hour and a half after the fire started
that it was gotten under control.
THE LOSSES
Are estimated at about three-quarters of
a million of dollars divided, as near as can
be ascertained, as follows:
A. L. Bancroft & Co., building, S120, 600 !;
insurance, $4,000. Stock and liant, $780,
000 insurance, $4,000.
| l.. e. Z. Emanuel, stock of furniture,
$120000 insurance $4,000.
The other buildings and contents, on
which there was little insurance, will proba-
bly, make up the balance Of three-quarters
! of million.
SERIOUS INJURIEs-FoRTUHAT ESCAPES.
A number of persons are reported killed
and seriously injured. Patrick Beatty, aged
40, employed in the trunk factory adjoin-
ing Enanuel's, was caught in the falling
ruin, and taken out in dying condition
He was removed to tie City Hospital
where he died shortly afterward.
| Jack Curran, a fireman, who had leg
broken at the Crocker fire, sustained the
same injury to-day.
There were about 250 people in Ban
croft's and Emanuel's establishments, in
Guiding large number of girls employed
in Bancrofts, who, when the alarm was
sounded throughout the building, made a
stampede on the stairway leading to the
streets. Fortunately, however, all escaped
in safety.
A five-year-old boy of Baron, black
smith on Broadway, near Stockton street,
while viewing the fire from the roof of his
fathers house, lost his balance and fell,
ara was killed.