The morning call., 1893-08-01

were loaded with passengers, many of
whom looked with approximations of i'm
pending disaster upon the tall column o!
black smoke that was ascending from the
fve-stnry building 221 and 223 Bush street.
There were tens OF thousands Of dollars
worth of costly lace.. liDens. silks and
rubber goods in the building, which were
owned by Buyer & Reich.
buckingham q Hecht, the shoe manu-
facturers and i'm porters, occupied the west
erly half Of the building and one floor of
the essteriy half occunied by Buyer &
Reich. Buckingham & Hecht's stock was
valued at 100000. Buyer & Reich. was
also valued at $500 600. Both were heavily
insured.
The column OF smoke assembled from tho
fourth story of the half of the buldin 2
occupied by Buyer & Reica. 1t quickly
spread TO the third and the fifth floors and
before the fire engines arrived the interior
Of the brick and iron structure WAS filed
with roaring flames. Croker & Co.'S print
ing establishment on the east side WAS in
danger Of destruction. and Buckingh &
Hechts valuable stock was saved by q
steel door between their foarih-storv room
and the fourth story room in which the
fire started in the adjoining building.
The water-tower was brought I'D shortly
after the fire started ana did excellent ser
vice. Two hours after tho alarm was
sounded The big building was saturated
with water ana the last puff OF smoke had
passed away. The loss TO the owner of
the building and occupants amounts to
about $4,000.
Among the first if not the frst 10 OBJ
serve the fire was d. E. Bohanuan OF the
Western Union Telegraph Company. He
was buying a cigar at tho cigar-stand in
front of the Brooklyn Hotel about five
minutes TO O'clock, AID as he turned
round to light it he noticed flames in the
fourth story of the building occupied by
Buyer 81 Reich. He Immediately ran into
The hotel and asked that an alarm should
be given through their telephone. Then
he rushed across the road to the Occiden-
tai Hotel, informed them OF the fire and
advised them to sound the alarm through
out that portion of the building so that
occupants of the rooms could make their
preparations to escape should that be
deemed necessary.
Bohannan, still bent on sounding the
alarm, ran down Bush street to Battery,
where there is 4 fire-alarm box, No. 81.
n pOtlIC SlACol WHS CtUSC W tllO DoA anu
Bohannan yelled to him to ring the alarm
as the whole street was on fire.
A crowd OF people quickly gathered on
Bush street and watched with painful in
ferest the flames eating their way from
front to rear.
Hose company and engine company fol-
lowed each other In quick succession. As
soon as Chief Sullivan arrived he ordered
a second alarm to be turned in. This was
eleven minutes after the first alarm.
The watar-tOwer was put up facing the
fourth story, and pumped an immense and
steady volume of water into the flames.
For nearly two hours this powerful
stream and other streams were kept up
before it could be said that the stubborn
flames gave any sign OF yielding.
The Croker building to the cast and
Buckingham 81 Hschts building to the
west were kept deluGed with water to pre-
vent the flames from communicating
either way.
With the object. also. OF proven ting the
flames from spreading to tho roofs OF these
buildings hose company Was ordered BY
The Chief to ascend to the feof by way OF