The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-05-16
THOUSANDS HOMELESS.
Monster Confagration in a Boston
Tenement District.
TWENTY ACRES BURNED OVER.
A Hundred Houses Destroyed, Five Hun
dred Families, Representing Three
Thousand People, Forced from Their
Homes and over sI 200, 900 Loss.

Homes and Over SI 900, 900 Loss.
Boston, May 16.-By the torch of an IN
cendiary over million dollars worth of
property is in ashes, over 500 families of
the medium and poorer classes, consisting
of over 5000 people, are homeless, and
many of them who had time to save por-
ton of their household furniture slept last
night in the open air. Women with babies
in their arms and little children huddled
close together, had only the sky for roof
and the mattresses saved from the burn
ing tenements for bed. After o'clock,
the time for tho workshops and business
places to close, many pathetic scenes were
witnessed, fathers returning to find their
homes burned to the ground, and no trace
OF their wives and little ones. Children
who had been at work as cash boys and
girls In the big dry goods and other stores
barred out from the streets where they re-
sided. and could find no trace of their pa
rents.
The fire covered space of twenty
acres, and az far as can be learned six per-
sons have been injured, and none fatally
The fire started in the Boston league ball
park in a pile of lumber which was lying
under the right field bleachers, directly
back of first base. In moment it had
leaped up to the seats, aud famed by
brisk breeze. swept towards the grand
stand, So rapidly did the flames spread
that before the occupants of the grand
stand realized II the fire was upon them
and they were forced to flee.
The left field bleachers were next ig-
nited. Meanwhile the sparks had fallen
upon the houses on Berlin street, and the
flames surged on towards fremont street.
reaching out to the right and left until
the entire square between the ball grounds
and fremont street and extending north
from Walpola street to Burke street was
mass of burning buildings. The Sher-
win kindergarten school house, a brick
structure, checked the progress of the fire
for only moment, and that, too, was
quickly numbered among the structures
consumed. The buildings on the south
side of Walpole street were soon burned
The flames shot down towards Coventry
street, on that side of fremont street near
est the ball grounds They swept on In this
direction for three squares as fur as Burke
street, devouring the homes of the men
and women who We're working with fran
tic energy to got out their household
goods, and even before they could remove
those to Il safe place the walls burned and
crumbled down.
Ats o'clock the entire block along the
to Burke was a brilliant mass OF flames,
which swept across to the opposite side
and soon engulfcd the buildings for four
blocks. by this time the residents of the
tenements for nearly half mile around
had become alarmed and were moving all
Their property into the streets and seek
ing for places of safety. So rapidly did
the Are sat its way, however, that those
in the blocks adjoining fremont street
did not have time to save their household
effects, and barely escaped with their
lives. The streets were filled with fright
ened woman and children, poor people
who were trying to save a part of their
small property and hurrying iircmen and
policemen. Furniture of all kinds lit
tered the sidewalks, and the firemen were
greatly hampered by the distinctions
BY 8 O'Clock the confiagration had
crossed fremont to Cabot street
Shortly after 6 O'Clock several steamers
arrived from Lynn, Salem, Beverly, Brook
line and Lawrence, and every effort was
made to stop the fire at Cabot street But
it could not be checked, and not until it
Ind burned from Cabot street half way
through to Warwick street and north to
Burke street WAS the limit of the burned
district on the southeast side of the ball
grounds reached.
While the firemen were fighting on this
side the fire was speading from Walpole
toward Milford place, on the southwest
side of the ball grounds, and in half an
hour all the buildings in this block were
in ruins. The fire burned on until it
reached Ruggles street at one point, and
consumed the houses on both sides of
Chapel street, and laid low the structures
or sudbury street, At RIggles street, on
the west, and Cabot street, on the south
east, the fire was practically stopped, and
at 15O the fire was under control and in
no danger of spreading further. II is es-
timated that about hundred buildings
havc been burned and about 500 families
rendered homeless. Prominent insurance
men place the loss at over million dol
lars, aud the insurance at about two
thirds of the loss.