The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-11-20
Leads all Oh8r North Carolina a08 in Bd1 News and Circulation

ed with increasing energy Men risked
their lives in desperate efforts to save
day books, ledgers, feathers, jewelry,
valuable Chinaware, etc. One man ac-
tually hazarded his life to fetch his hat
and cane, two hundred feet of stone and
glass work falling at his heels as he
emerged from the building.
Several fremen were almost buried in
burning ruins, as front after front OF
the flaming warehouses fell in, hurting
tons of bricks and masonry into the
streets, bursting and cutting the fire
hose in all directions, while tons of
fiery matter were falling in every direc-
tion, making it impossible to foresee
where the conflagration would stop, as
roof after roof caught fire and window
frames all about the scene began to
smoke. AS the afternoon wore on the
dense crowds were still further en-
larged, until it was estimated that
many hundreds of thousands of people
surrounded the big fire. These excited
masses of humanity had to be constant
ly pressed back by the police, as the
area of the fire swept spot increased in
size, an operation which became more
and more difficult as the owners and
employees of the warehouses adjacent
to the scene began the work of saving
the most valuable portions of their por-
table belongings.
BY dusk the picture presented was eX-
tremely brilliant. -Four streets were
blazing on both sides and there was
plenty to interest the gambling spirit
of the onlookers, in betting as to wheth-
er or not the venerable tower of st.
Giles church could stand the hail Of
sparks and burning fragments with
which it was enyeloped.
There was no abatement of the blaze
before $50 p. m. Then the check came
in Jewin street and in Wall street,
where the collapse of a wall on the
right hand side of that thoroughfare
was the means of saving the last build
ing in the street. The width of Red
Cross street, comparatively broad
thoroughfare, also formed barrier
there.
The constable who first detected the
flames blew his whistle loudly for as
sistance, but several minutes elapsed
before the alarm was heard by any
of his comrades. So soon as assistance
reached him, the officer was dispatched
to summon the fire brigade. But here
again there was an unaccountable de-
lay of twenty minutes before the first
engine appeared. Then the fearful di-
mensions of the fire was apparent and
it was decided to circulate a call
throughout the whole metropolitan dis
trict.
At 4 a. M. very large force of fire
men and about twenty engines have
been working at a high pressure all
night.
The district ravaged by the fire is
bounded by Alders, Gate street. Red
Cross, Maidenhead Court and Bradford
avenue, and includes the intermediate
streets-Jewif. Hamsell, Wall and Ed
mund and Jewin Crescent.
A LATER ESTIMATE, S25. 100000.
London, Nov. 20.--It is officially re-
ported that one hundred and fifty
warehouses have been gutted. later
estimate Of the damage done places the
amount at no less than f5,000,000
(So5. .O00,O ,O00)
Nearly all the British fire insurance
companies are involved, and fire insur-
ance shares were practically unstable
on the stock exchange yesterday after
noon Hriday) after the fire was well
under way.
Nearly three hundred telephone wires
have been cut, this interrupting COM
muncation with many of the provincial
towns The fire Will cause an enormous
advance in the price Of ostrich feathers,
which rose thirty per cent. last evening
CFridayl Two feather firms alone have
lost f15.000 1915 000)