Morning journal and courier., 1891-08-19
LOSSES RYFIRE

| Jacksonville Visited by . Conharra | tion-A Path of Smoulderfne Ruin, -Fffty.Five Buildings Burned-Rx plosfon Of Dynamite-TWo serfou, Fires in Boston-Big Blaze at Waco Texas.
 JACKSONVILLE Fla, Aug. 1S.-The lare
 est fire in its history visited this city to
 day. It started about midnight in R. D.
 Knights crockery house and spread to the
 Hubbard block, the Seminole club house
 and the Smith building. In the last build.
 ing large amount of dynamite was stored.
 This exploded. The effect was stunning.
 Men fell in the streets and many were in-
 jured. Plate glass for four or five squares
 was shattered and the sidewalks covered
 with broken glass. Residences, stores and hotels broke into flames and the fire be- came terrible confagrstion, which was not stopped until after daylight in the mid dle of the square bounded by Church ,Ash- ley, Laura and Main streets. The larger buildings burned are: Knights crockery store, Hubbard block, Seminole block, Smith building, the Mattier house, the Freedman's bureau building, the Fremont hotel, Hotel Placide, Ritzweller & Sidence. the Chelsea house, St. Joseph's academy. the Hilton house, the Murray & Bakers carriage repository, and nearly all the buildings from and including Simmons & Scotts shoe store to and including Lloyd Bros grocery store, corner of Church and Main streets. Fifty-fve buildings of all kinds were burned, and the total loss is about $500, 900. The insurance is eompar- atively small. No lives were lost.
 BOSTON, Aug. 1S.-Three alarms were given in quick succession from Box 14S this afternoon for fire in the six-story brick building occupied by Putnam 6 Co, manufacturers of spring bedsteads, Nos. 326, 32S and 330 Congress street. The fire caught in the fourth story, where unfn- ished mattresses, fibre, etc., are kept. It is supposed that lighted match thrown among these started the fire. In @ very few minutes the fourth, fifth and sixth stories were all ablaze. Each of these floors were filled with combustible material. In the fifth were stored packed bed frames and on the sixth was the feather depart ment. The rooms being full of feathers for the feather mattresses. The firm em- ploys about seventy men and thirty-fve girls, all of whom were at work when the fire started. They all got out alive. The ouAoauS, WA!ou is oWueu py ueuaW ~ Co.,, P. L. and s. H. Putnam, is practi- cally total loss, and it's contents also. It was built in 1888, has a frontage of nearly 100 feet and extends back some 200 feet. On the street floor were the ware rooms of the firm. The second floor was used by the firm for the boiler and ma chine rooms, and the third floor for the storage of finished mattresses and bed steads. All the stock on hand and the machinery were destroyed. No other of the adjoining buildings were damaged, ex- cept by smoke and water.
 Chief Engineer Sweeny of the Chicago fire department was an interested on-looker at the work of the fremen.
 a destructive fre.- The Damon iron works located at the extreme end of the crossway of the west Boston bridge are now @ mass of ruins. The building, which was two story wooden structure, had frontage on Main street of 250 feet, with depth of 150 feet, and was 300 feet long on the border of Broad canal. It was owned by MT. Da- mon and was valued at $50, 900. The two story wooden structure adjoining the Ds- mon building, also owned by MT. Damon and leased to Edward Kendall & Co.,, ma chinists, succumbed to the flames and only 8 portion of its front is left standing. The Kendall building covered an area of 60 feet frontage and 150 feet in depth, with 8 wing to the west along the Brood canal about 40 feet square. The Damon building was re- gently overhauled and remodelled.
 The loss on machinery alone is estimated at upwards of $75, ,000, the plant being a new one, with improved machinery, most of which was destroyed. The entire loss of the Damon Safe and Iron company will approximate $200,000, on which there Is but partial insurance In the Kendall shop $20, 900 worth of patterns were de- stroyed, and the stock and machinery ruined, were valued at $60,000 There is $50, ,00O insurance.
 The men employed in both places num- bered about 2S0. A majority of these owned their tools, in many cases valued at $100 to $150. The loss suffered in this way will be in the vicinity of S10, ,000. The Harvard Dry Plate company, in a building also owned by MT. Damon, was burned out, their loss being about S7,000, with $1 800 more on the building.
 WACO, Texas, Aug. 1S.-The dry goods and house furnishing establishments of Goldstein & Nigel and Curtis & Grand were totally destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon. Loss $275, ,000. Mrs. 0. N. Alexander, an employe of Goldstein & Nigel, had both legs broken by jumping from window.