The morning news., 1897-01-27

the fire Ieaped across and entered the sew
en-story double iron building fronting on
Filbert street occupied by Dunlap q clark,
printers, the Collins Carriage Manufacture
ing Company and numerous other firms.
The entire block at this time was honey
combed by fire.
The hremen feared that the great Wana-
maker establishment would go, and had
watched it like hawks. Mr.. Wanamaker
himself had arrived early and dismissing
the greater number of his $500 employees,
marshalled under his own direction the
fire force of the store. These men were
on the low roof of the Market street
'front.' and they speedily quenched the
burning brands that fell there. Then the
Market street front of the Hirsch build
ing fell into the street. A torrent of
fire rolled out and flowed across the wide
street and broke against Wanamakers s.
The building shrivelled and blistered be,
meath the fierce deluge, and a tongue of
flame shot up from the high clock tower
at the corner of Thirteenth and Mariset
streets The jet from the hose could not
reach the flames in the tower and the en-
tire building seemed to be threat
ened with destruction. The tow
er crumbled and fell, and this
proved the salvation of the building, for
the firemen were then able to fight the
heart of the fire, and soon had it under
control, although the entire Market street
and the whole building was permeated
with smoke.
Under the direction of Chief Baxter of
the fire department, Mayor Warwick and
Director of Public Safety Ritter, the fire
men did magnificent work, and by noon
they succeeded in obtaining the upper
hand of the fire.
Though the fronts of the building on the
east side of Thirteenth street were scorch-
ed, the fire was confined to the block in
which it started.
Hirsch Bros building was completely
destroyed, and all the other buildings on
the Market street front with the ex-
ception of the grocery store of Shovel
& Fryer, at Juniper and Market streets,
went down in destruction.
The small stores along Thirteenth
street to Silver street shared the same
fate, but the rest of the block escaped
entire destruction. 1t was gutted and raw
aged by the flames, but the losses at that
part will not be total.
While the firemen were struggling with
the fire, two alarms came in from other
sections of the city, and it was necessary
to withdraw several engine companies and
send them whence these alarms came
Fortunately, these fires were small and
the companies were able to return to the
scene of the greatest destruction.
AS many of the losers by the fire were
of every one, but the greatest losses, with
the amount of their insurance, was as
follows:
Hirsch & Bro, umbrellas. Hanscom
Bros, grocers, and A. w. bennett, res
taurant, 1909 to 1917 Market street, build
ings total loss. Loss 8 building and con-
tents S300, 900. The loss to the three ten
ants and on the building is fully covered
by insurance. The building was owned
by the estate of the late Henry G. Glib
son.
No 1919 Market street, owned by Henry
c. Lea and occupied by Blum Bros, cloak
manufactures, loss on building and con-
tents, $250, COO; fully covered by insurance.
The Dunlap building 1906 to 1910 Fill
bert street, owned by John Wanamaker,
loss on building $4,000; insurance $4,000.
The building was occupied by numerous
tenants, the principal losers among whom
are the Dunlap Printing Company, whose
loss is covered by an insurance of $6S,OO0;
the Wilbur Printing Company, loss cover
ed by an insurance of $4,000; the Collins
Carriage Company, loss $4,000; fully COW
cred by insurance.
John Wanamaker's stores, Thirteen and
Market streets, 100000 loss, mostly by
water; covered by private insurance.
The Joseph Harrison. Jr., estate owns
Nos. 1901, 1903, 1905, 1897 and 1925 Market
street, the rear of No. 1927 and 1923 Mar
lxet street, the rear of No.
% and q North Juni-
per street, and Nos 6, s, 10, u, IA, 16, IS
and 20 North Thirteenth street. M ost of
these were small buildings, and were
badly gutted, but the loss was pretty
completely covered by insurance. These
buildings were occupied mostly by tenants
in a small line of business, and most of
them carried lines of insurance nearly
] sufficient to cover their losses.
The losses were distributed among so
many that only an approximate idea of
the total loss could be gathered, but the
greater part is covered by insurance.