The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1897-11-22
Loss Estimates Run All the
Way From $10,OOO,0OO to
$15,OOO,OO0.
insufficient Resources of the Lon
don Fire Brigade and Mar
row Streets
The Cause of the Great Loss.
Valuable Records of Cripple
Gate Saved.

LONDON, Nov. % In Fridays fire
streets quarter of mile in length
were involved, l60 great warehouses
were destroyed, $40 important firms
and hundreds of minor ones were
burned out and damaged at a loss esti.
mated at close upon $l5, ,000,00
At midnight the scene was appalling.
The flames had been extinguished, but
the vast block of warehouses, as far as
the eye could reach right and left, was
one huge furnace, filed with mass of
smouldering ashes, on which streams
from numberless hydrauts seemed to
make no sensible impression. The
streets ran like rivers. Twenty steam.
ers were pumping up water through
gaping windows of burned out build
ings, while the sky overhead, for miles
around, reflected the intense lurid glare
of still glowing embers.
Every avenue leading to the scene of
the fire was blocked by police. Tens
of thousands of people had gathered in
the vicinity, largely composed of Lon.
don's very roughest element, but they
were overawed by few hundred po.
licemen. The reason the fire assumed
such gigantic dimensions was, first, be.
cause of the highly inflammable char.
acter of the contents of dry goods and
tobacconist warehouses, where it orig.
mated; second. because of the extreme
difficulty of handling it effectively,
owing to the exceptional narrowness of
the surrounding streets. Few Of these
streets permit two vehicles to pass
abreast, and the fire brigade had there.
fore great difficulty in manipulating
the engines and getting them into posi-.
ton. The delay thus caused gave the
fire tremendous headway.
The flames leaped through windows
and across these narrow thoroughfares,
aud caught houses on the opposite side.
The heat then became SO frightful that
the fire engines had to be withdrawn
and worked from O distance.
In the early stages of the fire, the
flames tore up through the iftways
elevator shatts) Of the wareouhses,
and spread over each successive floor
with incredible rapidity; then bursting
J out through the windows, they roasted
the fronts Of the houses on the opposite
side, which smoked and cracked, unit.
their wood work broke into fire.
1t will be several days before the fire
is completely extinguished, and the
ruins thoroughly explored.
The convection is general that the
London fire brigade is enterely too
small to deal with great emergency,
though the energy aud resources OF
Chief Wells aud the courage Of the men
are fully recognized.
| The insurance agents take an optim'
istic view of the losses, their esti
mates ranging from $l,500,00 to g.
OOO, 900. Itis a fact that dozens of the
burned out firms were not insured, in
some cases because they were considered
to be undesirable customers and in 9th
ers because the locality has long beer
considered dangerous by insurance com
panies. The latter assert that the sen
sational rumors regarding the losse'
have been promoted on the Stock Ex
change in order to influence stocks.
All the historic treasures of Cripple
Gate church were removed, including
the records Of Oliver Cromwell's mar
riage, Milton's burial and the death'
from the black plague in 1865.
At noon number of fire engines arr