The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1893-09-02
MANY ACRES OF FIRE.
SOUTH CHICAGO is SWEPT sY
FLAMES.
Fifteen Hundred Persons Rendered
Homeless and Two Hundred House,
De.troyed-The Property Loss vii
Reach sI.OOO,OoO.

Cn!c.ao, Aug. &c. South Chicago
(, has been swept by fire. The fire
started in frame barn in the middle
! OF the block between superior and
Buffalo avenues. A high wind from
the west was blowing at the time.
The danes spread rapidly, and BET, re
taey were. got under control twenty
acres of dwellings mad been consumed
and l,50O people repderet homeless
he damage TO property has not vet
been ascertained, but il is certain that
IT will be in the neigh borhood of
81 10000
The fire was said TO have been
caused by a small bonfire built by
some children of Conrad Papp. who
lived at l42 Ninety-first street A
spark from the bonfire fell into some
nay stored In barn at the rear of the
house. The combustible material
burned rapidly and by the ime En-
CINE Company 80, the frs. to respond,
reached the scene flames were burst
ing through the roof of the barn and
the sparks we're dying in every direc-
ton. SO rapidly did the blaze SD cad
mat the occupants Of the houses had
no time to devote to saving their eff
fects. but had To flee for their lives.
Then the blaze began to spread to-
ward the east The sparks caught by
the wind fell for blocks around. All
the buildings in the peighborhood
were frame and the long tongues OF
flame seemed TO wrap about them
with an embrace that left nothing.
When the wind parted the flames
blaCken' d shells and charred, smol-
ing tim bers only remained.
On one corner of Superior avenue
and Ninety-tirst street stood the Ger
man Lutheran church, recently built
at a cost of $1,000 of wood, with
brick foundation rising to height eli
twenty feet. 1t melted away like
wisp of straw in furnace. The OPP
posite corner was the First Methodist
church. This structure. too, was
frame and offered no resistance to the
blaze. Frightened people began to
gather at the corners nearest the
flames.
The full detail Of South Chicago po-
lice, numbering forty-eight men.
formed Gordon at Ninty-frst street
and Superior avenue and kept the eX-
cited citizens back toward the river.
The tons of water poured into the
flames by the fifty engines seemed to
have no more effect than a garden
hose. Half way TO Ninety. second
street on one side and Ninetieth street
on the other side the flames
roared and cracked as they plunged
on their eastward course. Through
the smoke and flames the belmeted
figures of the firemen could be seen as
they fought like demons in an almost
hopeless effort to secure victory over
the devouring monster.
The Sunday Creek coal yard, the
largest in South Chicago, filled with
coal which had just been unloaded
from steamers, stood at the corner of
Harbor avenue and Nine second
street bridge. The clerks in the Off &c
had seen the near approach of the
flames, but did not realize their danger
until the fire was almost upon them. |
The frail structure of the coal sheds |
was smoking and charring on the ex-
ter or when the men at work inside |
saw their peril Hastily selling their
hats they fed, and fifteen minutes |
later a mass of burning coal marked |
the spot where the yard had been |
located.
A little farther down on Ninety /,
first street, near the corner of the |
Strand, occupying half of the block |
between the strand and Harbor ave- |
nue., was the A. K. Beck lumber yard. |
in which were stored 5000. 900 feet O. |
lamber in huge piles and only served |
AS morsel TO feed the flames. But |
the end was approaching. The river
bad been reached and simply for lack /
Of material the flames began to die |
out.
A biackened charred and smoking |
waste, twenty acres in extent was all !
that was left to mark the spot where !
stood the'homts of 800 happy people. /
In all it is estimated that more than |