The herald., 1896-09-28
A sunday EVENING BLAZE
Several Buildings Des-
tr0yed by Flames
THE DEPARTMENT DOES GOOD WORK
A Loss of Nearly $4,000 Has
Been Sustained
DANGER FROM FALLEN WIRES
Los Angeles Wood Working Company's S
Plant Is Wiped Out
And Near by Adobss Fall a Pray to the
ConfIagration lp- 0F~
DANGER FROM FALLEN WIRES
Los Angeles Wood Working Company
Plant Is Wiped Out
And Near by Adobes Fall a. Pray to the
Conflagration ~ 0F-
Incidents of the Fire-Frightened Chi
nese Attack Supposed Chicken
Thief-The Western Union
Wires Down.

The fire department was last night
Jailed upon to fight an obstinate blaze
among a lot of old rookeries bounded
by New High, Upper Main, Bellevue
avenue and Ord streets, and for over an
hour had their hands full in controlling
the flames and finally extinguishing
them. Before 1t was put out the fire had
completely destroyed the two-story
brick and galvanized iron building at
Nos. GIG and 61S New High street, occu-
pied by the Los Angeles Wood Work
ing company; had burned the roofs of
two adjoining buildings. and. spreading
through to Upper Main street, eating
up sheds and barns In its way, had gut
ted the adobe building, comprising Nos.
SAB to SAT, occupied by Horatio Mar
teen as dye house and junk depot.
An alarm was rung in a little after
$3.50 from box 21, at the corner of Belle
vue avenue and New High street, but
even before this was done the flames had
| made good headway. Just how the fire
originated is as yet unknown, but it
started in the rear of Marteen's junk
shop. in the barn. or else just back OF
that in the rear of the Wood Working
company's building. When first seen
the fire was well under headwoy, and
the barn and rear of the brick building
were already blazing fiercely. When
the f1remen arrived they directed their
attack from two sides, New High and
Upper Main streets, the space between
being roaring mass of flames.
The lower floor of the Wood Working
company's plant was by this time all
on fire. and the flames, fed by the in
fiammable contents, leaped quickly to
the upper story and burst from the win
dows. The fire here was so fierce and
not that no one could approach closely,
and sheet of flame darted its fiery
front half way across the street.
A little adobe building standing lust
south caught fire, and all there was of
it to burn-the roof-was DESTROYED IT
was occupied by Mexican who ran a
little candy and fruit stand, and who
managed to get most of his stuff out
before the place caught fire
| The sheet of flame which leaned from
| the windows of the big building had
| meanwhile attacked a telegraph pole
which stood directly in front and it was
| seen to totter There was barely time to
shout warning to the crowd when the
| heavy pole came down with a. crash.
bringing 70 or 100 wires a tangled mass
to the ground. A few moments later the
| roof fell In and the fr 2lt wall sWayed a
|
| ing pile. The rear wall stood until
half hour later when the fire in that
vicinity was nearly extinguished when
1T, too. fell with roar that shook the
ground and nothing now remains Of the
woodworking companys plant but a
heap Of debris.
On the north side of the large building
was one story structure at 62O and 622
occupied as rooming house. The oc-
cupants had time to get all their stuff
out before the roof caught and blazed
up fiercely. A we'll directed stream
squelched the blaze in its incipiency
and the fire on the New High street side
| was out.
Over on Main street the fire laddies
were working with two lines of hose laid
through an alley which led alongside of
the junk store to the rear and the sta
bles. The horses had all been gotten
out safely but the flames had spread
from the barn and attacked the entire
rear of the long adobe building. AS
stated, No. SAT was occupied as a Junk
shop and was stored with old clothes.
rags, bottles, tin cans and all sorts of
rubbish. The next two Storerooms on
the south. Nos. SAB and 645, were occu-
pied by Marteen also, with the Metro
politan steam dye works. Next door
south, but in another adobe is the Chi
nese store of Po Chuey Tong & Co., and
here the excitement was intense.
The flames reached the back yard and
the frightened celestials flew about jab-
bering like mad, but doing little real
work. There was lot of chickens run
ming around in the yard which were in
| danger of being burned to death. Her.
man Chamlin young German who
works in the Philadelphia brewery, ran
in through the Chinese store and began
to grab the chickens and carry them to
| a place of safety. He made one trip
safely and was coming out again with
six or eight chickens held by the legs
when he was pounced upon by the indig-
| rant Chinese, who accused him of being.
chicken thief. Before he was rescued
by the appearance of an officer, Cha mlin
had been somewhat used up. The fire
did no further damage to the rear OF
the Chinaman's place than to burn the
| fences and cause them to get a good
wetting, but the heather had an expert
ence they will not soon forget. "a N
Marteen's places We're not so fortunate
and the interiors of both dye works and
junk shop were gutted. The flames
burst through the street windows but
were held in check and finally subdueq.
There was q report that a man had mar
rowly escaped death by suffocation in
when the fire started. The door was
kicked in and he was dragged out just
in time.
1t was impossible in the confusion
to get a close estimate of the loss, but il
will probably be about as folioWs: On
stock of Los Angeles Wood Workin g
company, machinery, ETC., $4,000; on
building, $4,000; H. Marteen, loss of stock
both stores. $1,000; damage to buildings
$500; other smaller losses, $1,000; damage
to wires, ETC., $500, making the total
damage not far from $4,000, upon which
there is some insurance.
One incident of the fire which was par
ticularly annoying and even dangerous
to the fire men was the terrible mess OF
fallen wires, which lay in every direction
as the result of the fallen telegraph pole
and burned brick building. This was
on the New High street side, where there
was no trolley to contend with. Whei
the tall pole fell it broke no less thar
thirty-eight Western Union wires, be
sides twice as many more telephone cir.
cults. The fall of the pole and snap
ping Of wires loosened another pole al