The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-28
GREATEST CONFEDERATION OF THE DECADE

-F it was the frebug, he demonstrated
last night how he needs watching.
His business has developed into the
wholesale.
The block of buildings bounded by
Fifth, Fourth, Brannan and Bryant streets
was swept away by flames last evening,
which, not satisfied, sprang across Fourth
street and ate ravenously into the block
eastward, toward the water and the Mail
docks.
A lack of water and the presence OF a
gale of wind gave every reason to those
who witnessed the almost unresisted sweep
of the fire that a tremendous path OF ruins
would stretch through the halfm offrame
structures that extended from the point OF
the initial blaze to the water front and its
shipping. The veering wind, however,
which turned the big blaze back over the
ruin it had already wrought, and where
the completeness of its work had left moth
ing for it to feed upon, saved the south OF
Market street.
As it was there was enough. All the
horror and panic and pathos OF those great
fires such as come rarely into the history
of great cities and has not been seen IN
San Francisco these ten years; horror and
panic and pathos with background Of
lurid maenificence such as lifts the spirit
of the mere spectator and makes him in
different for the time being to all its cost.
Before the swift speed of the ire-with
its heat, its hungry, eager and awful roar,
its arms flung into the sky-hed shrieking
women, bearing their children in their
arms, and men and other children with
e o5,- 1aIsNT x1T1cyc
they could; horses struggled and became
panic-stricken behind other wagon-ioads
of hastily piled-up furniturei policemen
battled with an unnumbered mob OF peo-
pie pressing ut the ire lines at every ap-
proach to the fire around the threatened
area, while firemen with impotent hose
nozzles that threw no water rushed here
and there in desperation, while others
with axes and ladders did what they could
to break the progress OF the ire.
For two blocks in the direction the fire
was speeding before the wind the residents
carried the;r goods into the street and
stood guard over them, waiting the sign OF
imminent danger before moving further,
while the hundreds of people whose houses
were destroyed made their way into neigh
boring streets, out of the path OF the
flames and there biyouacked until late into
the night, some with few belongings,
nursing their babies on the sidewalk, glad
to have escaped, but already wondering
and almost hopeless, in their losses and
misery. concerning the morrow.
So rapid and complete was the destruc-
ton of an entire block, entirely built of
wood, that it is impossible to specify the
number Of residences-all OF them of poor
people-destroyed, but their number is
estimated at 200. This means con-
siderably more than 200 families
entirely burned out, for many OF the
houses were occupied by several. In the
district were also a mum Der of small hotels
and lodging-houses, notably the Stanford
House at Fourth and Brannan, the Ster-
ling House, the New Prescott on Brannan
street and Shirley's Hotel, a two-story
house on Fourth street. These represent
several hundred more people thrown out
of homes. The total number of buildings
destroyed is said to be 275.
In the fever of excitement rumors fol-
lowed one another in tangled procession
concerning accidents and loss of life, but at
this writing not one of them had been sub
stantiated. It was said that child was lost
in the convent attached to st. Roses
Church on Brannan street. 1t was said,
again, that three men were lost in the fall
of the church itself; again, that a woman
was burned in the Stanford House; again,
that a fireman had been caught in the fall
of the walls of Horstman's chemical works.
This last was true in so far that a fire
man was injured by some burning scant-
lings, but not seriously.
The loss is estimated by Fire Marshal
Towe at $1,000 900. And the great part of
this great sum Is chargeable to the fact
that the old water-pipes of six, eight and
ten inches through this district failed
utterly to supply water sufficient to
meet the occasion. 1t was pitiful
to witaess an army of brave fremen
facing flames such as these were with a