Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-01
EV|CTED BY FLAMES,
Four Hundred Persons Made Home
less by Fire Which Swept
Through Braddock.
F0RTY-0EE DWELLINGS BURNED.
Sufferers Camping in the Open Air, Sleep
ing Upon Mattresses and Piles
of Clothing.
POOR PEOPLE LOSE THEIR LITTLE ALL.
FORTY-ONE DWELLINGS BURNED.
POOR PEOPLE LOSE THEIR LITTLE ALL.
The Pittsburg Fire Department Responds 10 the Call
for Aid.

known as the Hungarian quarter, was swept
out of existence by fire yesterday afternoon.
The burnt district covers about two acres.
Forty-two houses, mostly of wood, two and
three stories high, were entirely destroyed.
One hundred and twenty-five families, COM
prising a total of about 400 persons, have
been rendered homeless. The loss is vari-
ously estimated from $780, 900 to s125, 900,
which is partly covered by insurance. There
were several narrow escapes, but no lives
have been reported to be lost
Just how the conhagration was started is
not known. When it was first discovered
the flames were bursting through the roof of
a small stable owned by John Barlow, a
grocer on Washington street, near Eleventh.
The stable was situated in the rear of the
grocery store, and between it and the store
was a small wooden shanty, which was occu-
pied by a family Of Hungarians named
Inbec Shortly before 3 o'clock Mrs Inbec
left her ironing and, looking out of the win
dow into the narrow alley way below, she
saw the stable wrapt in flames. About the
sameI time William Sheare and John
Tremen, employed in Packers & Red
mond's brick yard, saw the stable afre, and
ran down the tracks of the Pittsburg, Nc
Keesport and Youghiogheny Railroad to
the water works and sent in an alarm.
DIVERSE STORIES OF ITS ORIGIN.
Tremen said last night that he thought
the fire must have been started by some
sparks from an engine becoming lodged
upon the roof of the stable. One of the
a.. q L. L. ~
from good authority that a Hungarian
woman carried an old straw bed tick out
into the narrow four-foot alley and set fire
TO it.
The flames Ieaped up until they reached
the hay in the stable and in a few moments
the entire building was ablaze. The build
ings around the stable were nothing better
than old tinder boxes crowded thickly to-
gether, only being separated by narrow
alleys, four feet wide, running from Wash
ington street back to the open ground near
the line of the railroad. The fire made
quick work of all of them. In short half
hour it left nothing standing on the south
side Of Washington street, from Eleventh
street to Twelfth but a few cracked and
burned chimneys. Then it Ieaped across to
the north side of Washington street and
continued its destruction in an easterly
direction to st. Clair street. There its
progress was stopped by the heroic efforts of
the Braddock volunteer fremen.
The fremen made another successful stand
on the south side of Washington street, and
checked the fire from catching on to the
houses owned by the Hungarian leader in
the community, John Wolf, and sweeping
everything before it as far as Thirteenth
street. An hour after the fire was first dis
covered in Barlow's stable, a swath Of about
two acres on both sides of Washington street,
between Eleventh and Thirteenth streets,
had been burned, and nothing left but
smoldering piles of debris.
SOME HEAVY LOSERS.
In some instances the loss to the owners of
the buildings will be very heavy. The
heaviest loser, perhaps, will be John
Ascher, who owned u buildings, of which
nothing remains but as many piles of
burned bricks and mortar. Mr.. Ascher's
loss will be in the neighborhood of $50, 900,
upon which, it is understood, there is
small amount of insurance. Some of the
other owners, whose loss will be heavy, are
John Barlock, Patrick Connolly, John
Peterson, Ike Hartz, Mrs. Clara Dillon,
Charles Davis and Mr. Dunbar. The
full list of owners, with the amount of de-
stroyed property owned by each, is as fol-
lows:
JOHN ASCAER, twelve houses.
PATRICK CONNOLLY. two houses.
JOHN DOUGHERTY, one house.
JOHN BARLOW. four houses.
Mr.. ELTHERPRESS, two houses.
FRANK CONNOLLY, one house,
1IR HINES. one house.
ANTHONY HOOD. one house.
WILLIAM HUGHES, one house.
JOHN PETERSOF, three houses.
IKE HARTZ, three houses.
CLARA DILLON. two houses.
DAVID CUNNINGHAM, one house.
Mr.. DUNBAR, one house.
MR.. SHAW, one house.
CHARLES DAVIS. three houses.
ALL THEY POSSESSED.
The greater number of the owners lived
in their own houses. Their loss comprises
nearly all they possessed on earth. Nothing
of any value was saved. The fire, famed
bv a strong easterly breeze, swept so quickly
through the dry wood of the buildings that
no time was had to remove anything out Of
the houses. A straw bed tick, mattress or
an arunful of clothing were about the only
things that the people saved from the gen.
eral destruction. Washington street from
Eleventh to Thirteenth street and the va
cant lot near the railroad are Uttered with
bedding materials and broken scraps of
household furniture.
Last night the homeless people camped
ou, in the vacant lot, sleeping on mattresses
and piles of clothing with which they fed
from their burning dwellings. The people
in the neighborhood who had the room
threw open their houses to the homeless ones
for the night and many availed themselves
OF the privilege.
Joe Wolf, the Hungarian King" as he
is STYLED, gave up two large brick blocks
which have just been constructed, to the
sufferers. In all ne has put As rooms at the
service of the burned out people. Mr..
Charles Lwopps, Superintendent of the
Carnegie Steel Works. where most of the
sufferers were employed, gave orders last
night for the erection of a dozen temporary
shanties near the railroad tracks for the ac-
commodation of the people whose homes
were destroyed.
MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE.
TT is fortunate that the destruction of
buildings was not greater than 1t is. AT
one time it looked as If the fire would sweep
up toward the town and consume every
thing in its path until there was nothing
moro for IL 70 burn. The high east wind
carried pieces of burning wood as far away
as the Pennsylvania station, quarter OF q
mile distant from where the IRE started.
Or1If q