The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-02-18
DESTRUCTIVE FLAMES.
TWO MILLION DOLLAR FIRE AT
NEW ORLEANS.
Four Men Lose Their Lives While En-
deavoring to Save Life in
Fire at Louisville.
snecial TO the REcoRD-UN1oy.

Speclal 10 the hECORD-ONION.
NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 17.-At II O'Clock
tonight fire Quilted the dry goods store
of Schwartz & Sons, corner of Canal and
Bourbon streets. The heat was so great
that the fremen could not get near the
burning building. The fire then spread
to the adjoining buildings, and soon
Werlein's music store, Claverias' drug
store, RunkePs dry goods; McCloskey,
confectionery; Kuhn, fancy goods; Kre
Store: bubble, fancy goods; Kraus Bros,
notions; Hoffman, worsteds; BrilPs
saloon and Wenger's saloon were con-
sumed.
Schwartzs establishment was COM
manding structure, only recently COM
pleted, being four stories high, with a
mansard roof, of brick, iron and stone,
surmounted by high clock-tower. At
1915 waiter In restaurant on the oppo-
site side of the street perceived a small
tongue of flame licking its way along the
cornice of the roof of the Schwartz build
ing and fastened to give the alarm. The
department responded promptly, but
experienced great difficulty in getting
to work, and the whole editice was
abIaZe before stream could be brought
to bear upon it. The flames spread back
ward to Kraus Bros establishment and
across Bourbon street to ClaveriaS' drug
store simultaneously, and the department
found itself powerless to cope with the
destroyer, and suburban engines were
pressed into service.
Backward the fire spread to Hoffman's,
to the left it attacked Werlein's, and
crash followed upon crash as the falling
roofs, overburdened the floors beneath,
already heavily laden with stocks of
merchandise, and each gave way in
turn until the interior fixtures of the
stores and their contents were piled in
blazing heap on the ground floor.
Stripped of all support, the walls of
the Schwartz building toppled over and
fell, and the Werlein building quickly
followed suit.
A building on the river side of Bourbon
street crashed in soon after, and full
half square of the most valuable prop
erty in the city was a smoking mass of
ruins.
A breeze arose to fan the flames, and
they attacked their prey with renewed
vigor. On the opposite side of Bourbon
street the Claverias building was first to
collapse, and carried with it the walls of
Runkefs establishment. McCloskey's
confectionery was a mass of seething
flame. Kreger's building was also burn
ing fiercely. The nickelplate shoestore
intervened to save the main entrance to
d. II. Holmes immense establishment
on Canal street, and that portion of the
store was but little damaged. The Bour-
bon-street entrance to Holmes, however,
Jared worse. The massive plateglass win
dows and weather doors were shattered
to atoms, and the more infiammable por-
tions of the stock thus exposed caught
fire in moment.
Long ere this the department was fairly
at work, and tons of water were being
poured upon the burning material. and
the flames showed the first symptoms of
yielding. On Canal street. east of Bour-
bon. they met an impossible barrier in
the massive Touri buildings, which adj
join Werlein's, and though the roofs of
all the stores comprising the row were
more than once atire the flames could
make no progress against the sturdy
masonry. The new Cosmopolitan Hotel
and adjoining structures, which front on
Royal street. just off Canal, and run back
into the center of the block, caught fire
in the rear, and it required the utmost
efforts of the tiremen to save them.
The prOmptness with which the various
electric circuits running through the
heart of the city were shut Oft prevented
any fatalities, and the only accident noted
is the injury to fireman caused by fly
ing debris.
The fire is still burning fiercely. The
buildings and stocks already destroyed
will approximate S2,0000OO.
FIVE LIVES LOST.
LOUISVILLE, Feb. 17.-Five men lost
their lives here to-day in an attempt to
rescue person supposed to be within the
walls of the burning building. They had
been in the building only few seconds
when the walls fell with terrible crash,
and they were buried beneath a huge pile
of burning debris and instantly killed.
EPIDEMIC OF INCENDIARY FIRES.
MEMPHIS. Feb. H.-There is an cpl
demic of incendiary fires here. Monday
night several small residences were
burned. Last night there were four fires.
two dwellings being burned, and the in
mates barely escaped. Every effort is
being made to discover the firebugs.