The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-24

Skel6lOH OIL the Hotel IL
a heap Of debris. underneath
Awhich there may be buried the
charred remains of five to ten
unfortInates.
The swaying, spire-like chimneys sur
mounting the walls, and the smoke
blackened buildings on Market. Powell
and Ellis streets mutely tell the story of
the hardest fought battle in which San
Franclscos fire department has ever
been engaged.
The fire, which originated in the
hotel :dtchen shortly after 3 o'clock
yesterl. ay morning, quickly shot UP the
air SHIFT in the center Of the building
and in3a few seconds the huge building
was a sseething, roaring, blast furnace.
Tales ST the affrighted guests who ran
for their lives and the horrifying de-
tails OF scenes in and about the burning
hostehy were told in full in yesterday
mornings Call, and to-day the addi-
tional incidents are given.
Next to the number of lives lost in
terest centers in the origin of the fire.
its progress and the twelve-hour
struggle of brave fire laddies to subdue
the destroyer before more lives were
sacrificed and a greater property loss
resulted.
Captains Comstock and Gillespie
stated yesterday that they had definite
ly learned that the blaze started in
the kitchen on the second floor. but
they cannot establish the cause. For
fifteen minutes before an alarm was
turned in the kitchen employees fought
the flames, but were unable to subdue
a f1ItiIifU
of their efforts warning cry was given
and quickly carried down stairs and to
the streets. The first corners, who ran
to assist the hotel employees in rousing
the sleeping guests, saw the fire shoot
ing, unobstructed, up the well imme
diately in the rear of the stairway and
south of the kitchen. In less than five
minutes the four walls of the well were
burned through, and the fire ran like a
race horse through the corridors in
every direction. By the time the fire
department arrived the whole interior
of the hotel was ablaze.
But a moment elapsed after the first
alarm was sent in when second and
a general were rung Two fires, one
on North Beach and larger one at
Fourth and Folsom, were in progress,
and several engines, water tower and
a battery, which should have responded
to the second call, were delayed in go
ing to the Baldwin.
In the meantime the fire had been
gaining rapidly, and the engineers
knew no human power could save the
Baldwin Hotel. Every effort was i'm
mediately concentrated on saving the
adjoining buildings from destruction.
In a few moments all the available fire
apparatus Of the Fire Department was
in use, and by o'clock twenty-four
engines were sending tons of water
each minute into the doomed structure
A lack of hydrants hampered the work
of the Fire Department. There is moi
a hydrant on the south curb of Market
street from Fourth to Fifth, and sew
eral engines were stationed directly be-
meath the bulging walls of the Baldwin
MANY engines were too for from the fire
TO do effective work. Forcing the water
through 200 to 300 yards of hose taxed
the utmost capacity Of the pumps, ane
some of the streams only reached the
first and second stories.
When the battery arrived from the
Folsom-str fire the first effective
work on the Market-street side wa!
done Six streams from the nearest en-
gines were combined into one and sen
high over the side walls into the center
of the roofiess furnace.
When the walls became weak ane
were apparently about to fall Chief En-
gineer Sullivan ordered the nozzle mer
to keep it black in the vicinity where
engines were located" This order wa:
obeyed, leaving the fire full sway in the
crater of the volcano. Two hours Of
unremitting work on the part of the
fremen brought it's own reward. The
fire was under control. All that re-
NAMED was to keep the flames from
again increasing. There was no ces-
sation of water throwing until a. m
Yesterday, when the battle was over
and some of the exhausted firemer
were sent home. Several engines con-
tinued to pour water into the ruins al
day.
Long before daylight the big crowd
of fascinated spectators who watched
the fiery panorama from the first was
Increased by thousands of men, women
and children, who came from all sec
tfons of the city. The rumble of the
fire wagons, the rataplan Of horses
hoofs on the pavements, awakened the
people from South San Francisco to
North Beach. The illumined heavens
told them a great confiagration was on
in the center of town. Telephones were
sought. and the hello girls, before a
question could be asked, informed the
eager citizen that the Baldwin Hotel
was all afire." Then came the rattle
and noise Of hundreds Of coupes and
carriages. drivers of milk wagons urged
their swift horses to greater speed, and
before long the entire population SEEM