Omaha daily bee., 1893-12-15
BUFFAL0'S BIG BLAZE
Princely Piles Reduced to smouldering Ruin,
in a Few Short Hours.
FAST AND FURIOUS WORK OF THE FLAMES
Efforts of the Fremen Powerless t, Stay the
Work of Destruction.
%FlREpROof STRUCTURES MELT LIKE LED
For a Time the Entire business Portion Of
the City Was Threatened.
LIST OF LOSSES AND INSURANCE
Three-ouarters of IA Million Dollars Go ~ In
smoke-No Lives Were L~ost-rheory
of the FIRES origin
other Blayes.

BUFFALO, Dec. 1.-THE Arcade block, which
has stood for more than thirty years, u land
mark in the very heart of the city, WAS
destroyed by fire today. The fire also
swept away the Ierza building, which stood
on the south side of the Arcade, and did its
work so rapidly and completely that very
little of the valuable contents of the build
ings were saved. The losses are estimated
at not short of $3.50, 600.
1t Was II Furious Blaze.
Buffalo has not seen in many years such a
furious blaze. People mad come to look on
the Arcade as ireproof, out nothing now re-
mains but n smoking pile Of ruins, as the
big block burned like finder, and at one
time the flames threatened a large section
OF the business portion of the city. The
alarm was sent out about GAO this morning,
but before the department responded it was
seen the flames had got beyond control. In
the Arcade were NJ. 5. Robinson's musee,
Shea's music hall and a large number Of
stores and Offices.
IL extended from 200 Main street about
10 feet, running through to Washington
street. 1t was protected on one sido by the fire
wall of the building occupied by j. N. Adams
Il Co. S big dry goods store, and the firemen,
e'e>e ~ biios iitiihtVu w ottN u plDSIcSS
of the flames. Had this not been done the
entire block bounded by Main, Washington,
Eagle and Clinton streets would undoubtedly
have been destroyed. The owners of the
Arcade building were Public Works Com
missioner James Mooney of this city, James
Brisbane of New York and his mother of
Batavia, N. y. The Ycrza building was
owned by George B.. Matthews, Il well
known miller of this pity and ,yna pcpun,pt
by faXon, Williams & Faxon, grocers, who
came here from Boston several years ago
ana established the finest grocery house in
Buffalo.
Loss and Insurance.
The YerGa was five stories high: the Arcade
was Il four-story brick building and was
valued at 500 ,00J. The insurance is abou.
$4,000. Tho YerZa block was worth $780,
600 and the insurance was about $40, 900.
FaXon, Williams Il Faxon's stock was
valued at 5000 .0O0 and was insured for $780,
900. Mr.. Robiuson's loss on the musee is
about 100000. He had very little insur-
ance. This theater was known as WON
derland." 1t was similar TO his Rochester
and Detroit theaters. Shea's music hall
was patterned after Roster x Bial's in New
York. There is a loss of $500 on this.
The insurance was small. G. Tanke,
jcweler, is the next heaviest loser, his loss
being $4,000; insurance, scarcely a third.
Otto Ulprecht lost about 100000; insurance,
0,000. On both the Main and Washington
street side OF the building were n number
OF stores, which were destroyed,
In less than four hours the fire had spent
its fury. Most of those who remained in
the building during the night claim TO have
heard an explosion, by which il is supposed
the fire originated. The contents of the
building were of the most lnflammable
nature, and, aided by the strong draft, the
entire structure wac wrapped III flames in
less than half an hour from the time the
alarm was given So far rs can be learned
no one was seriously injured.