Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-12-05
BLAZES IN BOSTON.
A Sorry Thanksgiving Day at the
Hub.
Ten Million Dollars Worth of the Best
Business Property Swept Away
by the Devouring Flames
Some of the Losses.


Some of the Losses.
BosToN, Nov. 29.-Fire started short
ly before eight o'clock yesterday morn
ing on the upper floor of the six-story
granite block, Nos. SO to 81 Bedford
street, owned bv Jordan. Marsh & Co.,
and occupied by the Shoe and Leather
Exchange, Brown, Durel1 & Co., Woon-
socket Rubber Company, Solomon. He
bert & Ropp, John S. Fogg & Co.. and a
branch Office of the Western Union
Telegraph Company on the ground floor,
and about fifty offices of out-of-town
boot and shoe and leather manufacture
ers OF the upper floors. The fire evil
IDENTIFY had complete possession of the
upper floor before it was discovered by
the flames bursting from all the upper
/ windows. The alarm was promptly an
swered, but before a stream could be
| got on, the two upper stories were pour
| ing forth flames that reached across
Bedford street and caught the staging
| in front of the new Shoe and Leather
Exchange building in process of erec-
| ton.
| A second, third and general alarms
| followed each other in quick succession,
but before the additional apparatus had
arrived the flames leaped across to Bed
| ford, Kingston and Columbus streets,
and also to buildings in the rear in
the same block, and the engines already
in position were obliged to retreat to
new positions on account of the great
heat and to abandon ladders and long
lines of hose.
BY quarter-past nine o'clock the
handsome brown-stone Ames building,
on the opposite corner of Bedford and
Kingston streets, was a mass of flame.
Great sheets of flame poured from every
window and reached across Bedford
street, cracking the glass of the opposite
windows, add setting on fire in all their
upper stories.
At half-past nine o'clock all the build
ings on Chauncey street, either side of
Bedford, were on fire and the fremen
were apparently unable to cope with the
conflagration. The chief then sent to
all the suburban cities and towns for
help, which was promptly rendered.
Details of police soon had all that Sec
ton bounded by Summer, Washington,
Essex and Lincoln streets roped off SO
thoroughly that it was impossible to get
near enough to the fire to gather facts
for the press. just as the United Press
reporter was obliged to retreat before
the policemen's clubs, Jordan, Marsh &
Co., c. f. Hovey & Co., and host of
other dry-goods firms on Avon street
were loading herdics, express wagons
and hacks with silks and the more valu-
able of their goods.
sic{,
reached the scene from Cambridge, both
in engines and hook and ladder trucks.
From the building of Brown & Durell,
where the fire caught, it spread across
the street and back through the burning
building into Chauncey street. In less
than ten minutes the flames were tear
ing into the mammoth stone building
occupied by Williams & Co., on the next
corner south, and into Cluett, Koon &
Co.'s building. From the other side it
caught almost at once upon the build
ings ON Rowe Place, and the wind
favored the supposition that the whole
dry goods district was doomed. Already
every building had gone from Bedford
street, along Kingston and Chauncey
streets, and the flames were eating up
all those on the south side of Rowe
Place.
On the east side of Chauncey street,
the buildings were all mammoth struc-
lures occupied as wholesale houses in
the dry goods trade. and every endeavor
was made to keep them from catching
fire. This endeavor was futile, how
ever, and the flames rushed on in both
directions. The Globe Theater is now
burning. It is impossible to get list
of the burned buildings at this time.
AS near as can be ascertained at this
hour-half-past eleven o'clock-eleven
blocks of buildings have been destroyed.
The fire now seems to be somewhat
under control. The out-of-town fire
companies are doing effective work.
Although confidence is expressed that
the fire will not spread much more,
there are grave fears for the safety of
r. HI. Whites large dry goods establish
ment and also the retail departments of
Jordan, Marsh & Co.. and Hovey & Co.,
as the fire seems to be working in that
direction.
LATER.
The fire did not quite reach Summer
street nor Lincoln street, but it burned |
halfway through the block bounded by |
Kingston, Summer and Bedford streets, |!
and also that adjoining. Showers of |
sparks were driven ahead of the flames, |
principally towards the great dry-goods
stores on Washington street. The |
soaked condition of the roofs. however,
and the pouring rain, extinguished the |
sparks before they could do any dam
age. A strong in-shore wind was blow
ing all the morning, and the storm sig
nails were displayed from the signal-of-
flee roof. There is little doubt that but |
for the deluge which poured from the
clouds the fire would have swept through |
to the Common. The heat from the fire
in the earlier hours was strong enough
to be painful to t1$ faces of spectators
hundred yards or more distant, and the
flames reached as high again as the top
of the six and seven-story buildings
which were being consumed,
Scenes witnessed by the writer during
the great fire here in 1872 and in the
recent Lynn fire were re-anacted, and it
seemed that the flames could not be
Modern fre-proof buildings
like those at Bedford and Kingston
streets, built only four or five years ago
after the more approved fre-resisting
plans, were licked up with rush and a
roar with apparently the same appalling
hot 1,nlo 4