The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-18
5000 ARE WITHOUT HOMES
4 HISTORIC NOYI SCOTIA TOWN
 TESTIFIED BY 4 S3,OOO,OO0 FIRE.
Whole Town Practically Vast Heap of Ruins-It Will Not Recover From tho Blow for Years-Origin of the Fire
 Mystery-suspected, However, to Have Been Due to Careiessness of Drunkards.

Been Due to Carelessness of Drunkards.
 Windsor, N. S., Oct. 1S,-Historic Windsor one of the most beautiful towns in the provinces, was devastate by fire this morning. For six hours, beginning shortly before a. m., the fire famed by violent northwest gale ragged so flercely that the local fire department was absolutely helpless to cope With it and within half an hour after it's discovery the mayor be- gan to call for outside assistance.
 Long before noon the town had been almost completely eaten up, the area covered by the flames being almost a mile square, and of the four hundred or more buildings occupying this sec tion barely half a dozen scorched structures remain. All is a waste of ruins, the buildings that escaped in clude the Windsor Cotton factory, Kings college, the Anglican church, Edgehill school for girls and Dufferin hotel
 The latter is the only hotel left standing. No Nova Scotia town has ever been visited by a conhagration of such dimensions Of the $500 people inhabiting the place there are very few who have homes of their own tonight. Over 5000 have been taken in by the residents of the outskirts of the sur rounding country and neighboring towns while the remainder of the suf- ferers have gone to Halifax or are sheltered in army tents erected in the vacant plots this evening by detach ment of British troops from the Gar rison city.
 The disaster is appalling in it's ex- tent and dread consequences to recover from which will be a matter of many years.
 The fire started in a barn behind the marine block in the heart of the busi- ness district. The high gale prevailing carried the flames to other buildings before the firemen had time to get at work, and in a short time the showers of sparks carried in all directions had ignited score of buildings. The oc cupants of dwellings had time enough to hurry on some clothing and to drag some household goods into the streets, Dul lHtIc NdS ilp pldCc OL Sdjtly lp which anything could be removed quick enough to save 1t from being de- stroyed or damaged.
 The flames cut a clean gap from the waters edge on the business front to the forests in the rear bound by Ferry Hill on the south side and by Fort Ed ward to the north. During the past few years many handsome brick struc- lures have been erected, but these were generally speaking contiguous to old wooden buildings and all went down together before the furious flames, to stay which was beyond the power of man.
 The origin of the fire is somewhat mysterious. A severe lightning storm passed over the town before the flames burst forth and some think the barn in which they started may have been struck by flash from the clouds, but many strongly suspect that the con- flagration originated through the care lessness or worse act of one or more drunken toughs.
 When morning broke the sight of Windsor was a scene of desolation, with hundreds of frantic, thinly clad and destitute men and women and children rushing back and forth through the smoking streets. Fortu- nately no lives were lost, although the streets were perilous with flying bricks and states which the hurricane drove like thunder-bolts from the roofs. In the excitement horses and cattle in the stables were forgotten and many per-
 shed in the flames or suffocated from Iyif nd they are tonight roaming the streets almost mad with cold and fright. The ruins of the fire are ablaze tonight
 The smouldering embers have been famed into a blaze catching, the piles of coal which are lying all around the burning premises and the heavens are lit with the flames, which cause their reflection across the river as far as the eye can see on either side. No effort has been made to quench these fires and naturally the occupants of the few houses that remain are afraid that the fire will break out again.
 The wind has moderated somewhat and there is no likelihood of further disaster. Relief measures were started in Halifax at an early hour and this afternoon a train load of provisions. tents, blankets, etc, arrived from the provincial capital. Aboard the train were General Montgomery Moore, Gov ernor Daily, Mayor Stephen and one hundred men of the Royal Berkshire regiment and Royal Engineers, who brought to attend the erection of the tents and aid in the relief work. The total loss is estimated roughly at S3, ,000, GOO. While a number of the heaviest losers are partially insured, and some of them pretty well covered, the total insurance is calculated to be not more than half million.
 The principal losses are the follow ing:
 C. M Shaw's Marine block, ST 7,O00; W. H. Curry & Co.,, s10, 900; Shaw Brothers. $S,000; Paysant's block, SIS, 900; Graham's block, s20000; Victoria hotel, $15000; Blanchard block, S22, 900; c. X G. Wilson's block, S1S,000; Dimock
 x Armstrong, $22,00O; J. B Shaw's black, s21 900; c. H. Dimocl1's block $14,00O; building of F. F. Murphy and Wood X Murphy S17 1000; Commercial block, S26,O00; c. P. Shaw, s12,0OO; G. D. Geldert & O., s3O000; A. k. Robin. son, 1000; ChurchilPs block, BPS. 900; Keiths building sSOOO; Wilson Broth CTS, $22,000; Gerrish block. $21, ,0OO; Bor- dep's block, $14,000; postoffice and cus- tom house, S20.000; Empire block $16,000 John Lynch, BIO, 900; Avon ho- tel. s6000; Somerset house. $12, 900: Ger. rish hall, S15,G00: gaol and courthouse
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