The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-11-29
A BIG BLAZE AT BOSTON.
TWO ACRES BURNED OVER, WITH
S15.oOOOOO IN LOSSES.

The Flames Raging Furiously for Six
Hours-Aid Asked from Twenty-one
Surrounding Towns, and Seventy
Ave Engines Engaged in the Fight.
A Heavy Rain All that Saved the
Town as Big CONFEDERATION as That
of 1872.
BOSTON, Nov. %, 2 P. M-Fire started
shortly before o'clock this morning on the
upper floor of the six-story granite block,
Nos. SO to 81 Bedford street, owned by
Jordan, Marsh & Co., and occupied by the
shoe and leather exchange, Brown, Durrell
& Co., the Woonsocket Rubber Com
pany, Solomon, Herbert & Rapp, 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 manufacturers on the
upper floor The fire evidently had COM
plete possession of the upper floors before it
vas discovered by the flames bursting from
the upper windows. An alarm was
promptly answered, but before a stream
could be gotten on the two upper stories
the flames had reached across Bedford street
and caught the staging in front of the new
shoe and leather exchange building, in
process Of erection.
ALARMING THE WHOLE CITY.
Second, third and general alarms followed
each other in quick succession. Before ad-
ditional apparatus arrived, however, the
flames had leaped across Bedford, Kings
ton and Columbus streets, and had also at
tackled the 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 abandon
several ladders and long lines of hose. By
9:10 o'clock, the handsome brownstone
Ames building, on the opposite cor
ner of Bedford and Kingston streets,
was a mass of fire. Great sheets of
fame were pouring from every window,
aud reaching across Bedford street, crack
ing the glass of opposite windows and set
ting the buildings on fire in all their upper
stories. By $50 o'clock the rear of all the
buildings on Chauncey street, on both sides
of Bedford street, were on fire, and the fire
department was apparently unable to cope
with it.
The chief engineer appreciated this fact,
and about $50 o'clock sent to all the sub
urban cities and towns, about twenty one
in number, for help, and by 10 o'clock en-
gines from nearer points were dashing in
from all sides. Details of police were also
arriving from the outer districts, and soon
had all that section bounded by Summer,
Washington, Essex and Lincoln streets roped
off SO thoroughly that the Associated Press
correspondent even could not get near
enough to the fire to see anything worth
telling. Just before he was obliged to retreat
before their clubs on Avon street, Jordan,
Marsh & Co., G. F. Stovey & Co., and host
of other dry goodsIirms on that street. were
loading herdics, express wagons and hacks
with silks and the more valuable of their
goods.
SEEN FROM ROOF.
About 11:30 o'clock the correspondent
succeeded in making the attendant of the
freight elevator at the Adams house believe
that it was necessary for him to go on top
of the roof to look after some Western
Union wires. The view from this eight
story point of vantage embraced the whole
scene, and the fire was apparently under
control. Very little flame was to be seen,
and Judging from an occasional view of the
ruins when the smoke blew away, about
two acres of property had been destroyed.
The starting point was about the center.
The correspondents interest in the scene
was limited, however, by the impatience of
The elevator man, who insisted on return
ing to his duties, and could not be persuaded
to do SO alone.
UNDER CONTROL.
walk completely around the section
roped off by the police just before noon
confirmed the view from the Adams house
roof, that the fire was under control Out
OF town fire apparatus continued to dash
IN, their horses reeklng with foam and wild
with excitement. There were probably
seventy-tive steamers surrounding the fire
by 1880 o'clock, and, judging from the de-
creased volume of smoke which rose from
1t at l o'clock, their efforts were being
crowned with success.
The starting point of the fire was only a
short block from that of the great fire Of
i NOV 8, 1872, and the alarm was rung in
from the same box, No. s. 1t burned nearly
up to the end of the burnt district of the
great fire, but did not enter it.
RAIN SAVED THE CITY. ~
The fremen were aided by pouring rain,
Which lasted from early last evening until
Just about the time they got the fire under
Il
doubt that other fires would have been
started by the storm of embers, some of
Them as large as half a brick, which fell
IKE snow flakes in all directions, but
principally toward the great dry goods
stores on Washington street. The soaked
i condition of the roofs, however, and the pour
ing rain extinguished them before they could
90 any damage. A strong in-shore wind
was blowing all the morning, and storm
signals were displayed from the signal
once roof, and there is little doubt that
out Tor the deluge poured from the clouds
Ihe nre would have swept through to the
n commons. The heat from the fire in the
earlier hours was strong enough to be pain
LuI TO the faces of spectators 100 yards or
more away, and the flames were as tall
II again as the six and seven story buildings
winch were being consumed.
10 the Associated Press correspondent,
n VINO VINO saw the great fire of
jlo1S, and the Lynn fire of two days ago, it
uid not seem possible at 10 o'clock for hu-
man man endeavor to stop it. Modern buildings
q !lke the handsome brownstone Ames build
ing, on the corner of Bedford and King
sUon streets, which was built only four or
nve years ago, after the most approved fire
resistance plans, were licked up with rush
ana ana roar, at apparently the same appalling
epeed that accomplished the same result
T TlIn the wooden shoe factories at Lynn