Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-04-20
A TERRIBLE FIRE.
A Portion of New York City
Swept by Flames.
. LOSS OVER THREE MILLIONS
A Lard Factory, Grain Elevators and
Dock Property Burned-Many
Lives Lost.
Associated Press DISPATCHES to the HERALD.

Associated Press DISPATCHES TO the HERALD.
New York, April l9.-At $3.50 this
afternoon three alarms of fire and cal
for the ambulances created sensation
in Fifty-ninth street and Ninth avenue
The fire was in Wilcox & Co.'s lard re-
finery. At Up. NJ. the Vanderbilt elevator
"A," which is near by, burned, and ele-
vator "B' is in flames. The damage is
now estimated at 81 100000. Some peo-
pie are killed or badly injured.
Later-The largest and fiercest fire wit
messed here for years swept the east bank
of the North River clear, to-day. from
Ninety-fifth street to what would be
Sixty-fifth street, if that street ran to the
river. 1t destroyed more than million
and a-half of property belonging to the
New York Central Railroad Company,
and at least half a million dollars worth
of lard, flour and the like, belonging to
other persons, notably to N. X. Fairbank,
the great Chicago lard merchant. The
flames destroyed two big elevators OF the
Vanderbilt system, big brick building
stretching from Fifty-ninth to Sixtieth
street, and occupied jointly by the Fair
bank lard refinery and the Rossiter
stores, and wiped out the dock property
of the Few York Central Railroad, from
Fifty-ninth to past Sixty-ifth street.
Henry Benning, workman in the
Fairbank refinery, was killed by jumpiag
from third-story window. Many 9TH
ers were injured by jumping, but in the
great confusion attending the conhagra-
tion the names and extent of injuries of
but very few were obtained. Rumors
were rife all the evening that number
of workmen had been canght and burned
in the refinery, but it has been impossi-
BILE to verify them.
The fire broke out in the southeast cor
ner of the Fairbank refinery, but how no.
body knows. Soaked in grease as the
old building was, it was in flames in an
instant. Men at work in every story
dropped their tools and ran to save their
lives. The staircases were columns of
flames, and the windows pre-
sented the only means of es-
cape. Pursued closely by the
fire, the men flung themselves
out headlong, and how many there were
nobody could tell. Many who came out
were picked up and carried away by !
friends. The fire had soon swept through |
out the length of the beilding and shot
over toward the big grain elevators of
the New York Central Railroad. Be-
tween the place where the engines were
stationed and the elevators there were
twenty-seven railroad tracks, which no
fire engine could cross, and next,
The Union Stock Yards, half mil g
of broad enclosures and pens, equally /
Thara M fOr fh al
fire engine to reach the elevators, except |
on Sixtieth street, past the burning build
ings, and that street, after two engines
had fought their way past, was blocked I
by the falling walls. Furthermore, near
the elevators was only one small water
pipe. The fire boats were sent for and
several of them soon began
Rorx in the heroic struggle |
10 save the elevators. but it was
all in vain. The tremendous heat from
the fire across the street dried and
warped the woodwork of the Zig frame
building under its corrugated iron sheet
ing, and in a short time the elevator was
on fire and burning fiercely. Soon after
the walls of the Rossiter stores fell, re-
leasing tons on tons of burning merchan-
disc, that rolled in blazing heaps in
every direction. This increased the
heat and flame, and the efforts
of the fremen seemed to be entirely
useless. About this time, the stock
yard pens were cleared out. At7o'clock
Elevator "B" caught fire, and the scene
then, in the growing darkness, was one
of lurid effects that made the spectacle of
awful grandeur. The second elevator
was entirely consumed also, and, at IL
O'Clock tonight, when the fire was
gotten under control, half mile
Of ruins sent out furnace
heat. An estimate Of the losses
is as follows The Rossiter stores, con-
tents $900,OO0 The Wilcox Co., stock
$3.50, 900; Elevator GA" $800,000; Ele-
vator "B," $3.50, 900; Dock 3D." (con.
tents), 100000; Dock CA" 5000
The Wilcox building, $220,000. Total,
So, 1886 900.
The loss to the property of the New
York Central Company is covered by
insurance. The Wilcox Company's
stock was insured for 100000.
At late hour tonight it is stated
that four men were in the ruins of
the Wilcox Company's building.
BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION.