Morning journal and courier., 1894-05-16
From All Quarters. BOSTON HAS A BIG FIRE Twelve Acres of Ground
 Were Burned Over HUNDREDS ARE WITHOUT HOMES Result of CareIessneSS and
 Stupidity
 DR. BIcE WON BY \ LENGTH A Great Race Witnessed
 by Thousands
]R. BIcE WON BY \ LENGTH
THOUSANDS ARE HOMELESS.

| Boston Has a Fierce Fire That
 Raualled That of Thank sgivinS Day | Of Five Years Ago and Was Nearly | as Bad as the Great Fire of Eighteen Years Ago-II Started on the Hall Grounds and Spread With FrightfuI RaPidity-Burning Brands Carried by the Wind Set Fire to the Build
 ings Near the Ball Grounds-Build- ing After Building Leveled te the Ground Until Ono Hundred and Slxty-four Wooden and a Number of Brick Structures Were Destroyed- Thousands Are Homeless-Firemen en Injured, Among Them Chief " eber Tine Loss Will Amount to More Than One Million Dollars.
 BOSTON, May 15.-Some small Roxbury boys set themselves up as rivals to Mrs. O'Lsary's COW on the Boston baseball grounds this afternoon and as result the city was visited by the biggest fire since Thanksgiving day of 1889, and confa- grafton covering greater area than any since the memorable one of 1872.
 While the financial loss is not circum- stance to that of either the above men toned fires, yet in less than three hours some twelve acres of territory were burned over, the baseball grand stand and blssoh- CTS, large school house, an engine house and 1894 wooden and thirteen brick build- ings and some 1000 families rendered homeless. The loss is conservativsly esti- mated at from $500. 1000 to $500, 900. al although one authority puts it at $1, ,00O, ,O00
 Indications are that the fire was caused hpo al orl ,,ofno {af av,I beyond control through stupidity.
 There could not have been better place to begin blszs. The seats in the center field had been torn dewn since last season and the only twenty-five, cent seats left were those occupying triangular position in extreme right field. When these eeats were completed there were left @ great many shavipgs and loose pieces of wood. These should have been removed, but they were not. As 1t had not rsined for several days this spot furnished excellent ammu- milton for fire. The boys set the fire and getting scared, ran away, and thus the flames got 8 start. An officer was told about the blszs and tried to pull away start they needed to make 8 conhsgration. Then 1t took a long time to ring in the alarm and to turn on the water, so that it seemed all of twenty minutes between the first appearance of smoke and applying of the first stream.
 The secoad of the series of games be- tween the Bostons and the Baltimores had begun before 3, ,5G0 spectators. Nsttled by the thorough defeat of the previous day the champions were playing ball and run. ming bases in way that threatened to carry everything before them. But two and a half iunings had been played and the D. katr Al bat in the last part of the third inning, when the contest was interrupted by flames which could be seen rieing from the right field bleachers.
 The occupants of the bleachers feeling the warmth under them jumped from their seats in wild engagement and tried to ex- tingish the flames by tearing the rubbish and scattering 1t, but the blaze gathered headwsy with 8 persistency which sur prised them and in 6 few moments was ex- citing more interest than the national game. After five or ten minutes of un- availing work some one suggested calling rung in at 4:17 p. m. This was followed by second at 4:21, third at 4:22 and fourth at 4:45.
 The department was slow in getting to work, and before anyone seemed to realizs the danger the flames, with the rapidity of a prarie fire, rushed along, taking in every thing of an iuflammsble nature they en- countered.
 The ball players ran ont toward the scene, but it was not long before they were forced back. It seemed hours before water was put on the flames. After hay ing thoroughly found their way into the twenty-five cent seats the flames attacked the outside houses on the east and crept Il Al. A ao11 l to saturate the seats back of first, but it was like e drop of water in bucket. All this time there was nothing being done to pro- tecJ the fine grand stand. Not @ line of hose was seen, not drop of water to avert the danger. Everybody was indignant that nothing was done to prott ct the splen- did structure, and thousands gszed with sorrowful eye as the flames devoured their victim. The heat was so intense that the spectators who had been driven into the left field corner began to make their way out of the grounds through a hole in the fence at center field.
 Fifteen minutes after the fire was dis covered the houses in the rear of the grounds were attacked and within an hour the whole fence on the right field side, all the seats on the bleaohers, the grand stand and the ticket office, with all the wooden structures contiguous had been destroyed. The fire had also burned through to Ire mont street and then proceeding southerly had taken all the wooden dwellings on Burke, Coventry and Berlin streets within its grasp.
 Having practically consumed every thing on the right hand side of Fremont street # lesped scross to the other side of that thoroughfare and then proceeded with e sweep in the direction of Roxbury Cross | ing. The northerly boundary of the fire l was Benton street, and its lateral bounda. l ries were Cabot street on one side and the | Providence road on the other.
 ! At 6 o'clock it had reached as far as W al pole and Sterling streets and was burning | as if not 8 drop of water had been put on
 it. The district was full of old wooden houses and the indications then were thai
 but few of those this side of Ruggles street
 would be left standing. The sparks were
 flying all over the northerly part of Rox. ! bury, set ing fire in many different locsli
 ties and adding terror to the confusion | which had been already engendered by tht
 blaze from the central fire.
 It is no exsggeration to gay that fifty houses in the Immediate vicinity of Wal poIs and Fremont streets had blazing roofs
 The occupants climbed from skylightl | with buckets of water, but no sooner hai
 they subdued fire on one part than the,
 discoverd one in some other locality anl finally seeing that their efforts were fruit
 less they gave up and left their homes t
 their fate.
 The houses on Berlin street backing o,
 the ball grounds were st the outset full o ] baseball enthusiasts. Tho moment the, saw their danger a wild dash to the stree vas made. When the houses began to g
 the scene beggared description. Childrel
 were crying for their mothers and mother vsiling for their offspring, and 1t wa greatly feared that some of the youngster
 were lost in the flames. A number c
 women fell in the street from exhaustion
 and had to be carried into the variou houses.
 The work of the fire department ws
 complicated by the fact that part of th fire department was out on two calls. B, fore 6 o'clock help had been summone | from all cities and towns within radir
 of ten miles of Boston and at 6:16 tt first piece of out-of-town apparatus a
 rived. Soon afterwards control of tf !. fire uss secured. A few minutes past } o'clock . woman was seen coming from
 house on Cabot street with her clothes C
 fire. She made a frantic rush from tl
 street toward the ropes. where Patrolml
 Green caught her, rolled her in the stre
 and thereby saved her life.
 After the fire had secured headway al
 had enyeloped in flames two teneme
 houses on the street siding the ball ground
 the cry was raised that five small childr
 |