Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-06-15
WAREHOUSE IN FLAMES.
One of the Worst Fires known on the Bal
timOre Water Front,

One of the most destructive fires that ever
visited the water front of Baltimore started at
2:25 O'Clock yesterday afternoon on the bay line
| wharf, at the foot of Union dock. A workman
saw flash among the Thousands of bales of
cotton stored there and gave the alarm. Al
most before the great crowd of workmen on the
spot knew it the entire water ed ge of the Bay
Line or, properly speaking, the Baltimore Steam
Packet Company, was a roaring furnace. Three
hours later the ruin was complete and DAM
age moderately computed at s40O, 900 had been
done.
The immense wooden freight sheds lining
Union dock 500 feet the basin front 400 feet
and the small dock at the west $50 feet, were a
mass of debris. Thousands of dollars worth of
baled cotton, hogsheads Of tobacco. bags of
| -four. barrels of whisky and rosin and mis-
cellaneous freight were destroyed and the large
brick freight and general Offices, cotton
storage shed. a laundry and private fire and
| lighting plant that we're clustered within the
| irregular quadrangle of the wharves were burnt
out, leaving erect only their stout brick wallis
Everything WAS roasting with the heat of the
| day when the fire started. How it began no one
knows. Spontaneous combustion was suggested
/ by dozen theorists, but there is no certainty
about the matter. The fire did not stop on the
Bay Line property, but went farther to the
north and destroyed the oil warehouse of James
| Corner Il Sons with its contents. This struc-
! ture was about 1000 feet north of the fires
origin.
| Spreading from it the flames attacked pile
Of rosin barrels lying on Union dock. 1t is well
that they stopped there, for on the northern side
OF Corners rosin shed was brick wall dividing
the fire from an immense warehouse in which
besides barrels of oil was huge iron tank con-
tanning $500 gallons of turpentine.
Capt. Darius J. Hill, superintendent Of the
/ On fhn ADCy. .,f
the Office building. He found himself sur
rounded by flames. and ordered that the four
laundry women be taken out. His next thought
was for the Norfolk steamer Carolina. Capt
Hill gathered the demoralized freight rushers
where the steamer lay and ordered her lines to
| be cast off, and she was thus saved The peo-
pie about the place made their escape, but Capt.
Hill waited too long and was badly burned
| about the face and hands. He lost great deal
of valuable personal property.
| In the meantime the flames savagely attacked
the barrels of rosin and spirits on the wharf
and spread to the four-masted schooner Angus
| tus Welt, loaded with ice at the Cochran Oler
dock. Everything above the waters edge was
| quickly destroyed and the flames commune
Gated to some adjoining vessels several schoon-
ers and lighters being badly damaged,
The furniture factory of Hollander d Co.,
four blocks from the pier, was found to be
ablaze at o'clock. A relay of firemen were
promptly on the scene, but could not get con-
| troll Of the flames. The factory was destroyed.
The loss on the furniture factory is $50. 200.
The total insurance estimated on the dock
| vessels, &C., is $155, 900.