Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-02-10
THURSDAYS FIRES.
Big One at New York-Panic
Among the Girls.
Thirteen Buildings Destroyed--D Damage
Will Reach 100000.
Forestport, N. r.. Wiped 0ut-Saratoga Loses
Several Buildings Other Blazes.

through the DlOck OF DulluiHSS Oppo-
site Battery park, bounded by Front,
Whitehall South and Moore streets
and destroyed Is buildings, entailing a
loss of about 100000.
One fireman, Bernard Blair, of the
fire boat Van Wyck, who was over
come in one of the buildings and who
was being brought down a ladder, slip
ped from the arms of his comrade
and fell to the ground, fracturing his
skull
Several other firenen were overcome
by smoke and cold and a corps of am
bulance surgeons was kept busy at
tending to the fire fighters.
One hundred and fifty girls employed
In the bagging factory of Messrs. wal
ter & Bell on Front street. became
panic stricken and score pr them on
the fourth floor were cut off by the
smoke. They were reached over rhe
roofs of other buildings.
There were many thrilling escapes
from the flames, some OF the tenants
being compelled to jump from the WIN
dows for their lives. Several were re-
ported on the missing list for time
but they are all now accounted for.
At least a score Of firemen and po-
licemen were badly frost bitten and
"a families, most of whom had escaped
without much clothing, suffered in
tensely from the cold.
When the flames were first discover
ca q large number of girls who are en-
plOyed in the bag factory. rushed down
the stairways in "A pack shrieking FOR
help. A fireman who was passing. and
several citizens succeeded in calming
the girls, and at the same time safely
guiding them out to the street.
Three Of the girls employed in the
factory ran out by the rear OF the
building as they say their danger. in
stead of following their companions
They were caught in the alley separat-
ine Peter Hartman's hotel at So White
hall street. An employe of the hotel
saw the smoke from the fire and
rushed to the back to see what was
ablaze. He saw the girls in the alley
crouching in terror from the black
smoke that filled the alley. One Of the
Rirls had tainted. He seized them. one
Nv one. and lifted them into the hotel
through the window. They We're not
injured.
Not long after the fire started sparks
blown Dy the WIFI, iSihIV' .>O.'' $780,
? South street. TOURIST buildings oc-
cupied as a storage warehouse by .. II.
Never & Co The rear began to blaze
and the wind helped it 50 as 10 ran lhe
blaze into a large sheet OF name ne
smoke from the fire was by TINS tii.'e
black and dense and the names cra.h
ling through it showed that the el'ti'c
block bounded by South, Front Moore
and Whitehall streets was IN DANGER
No. Front street, occupied oy ArSu'i'
,.L e. RANGES dealers in foreign fruits'
burned rapidly and no one knew whether
~ no, II had any occupants at the out
break of the fire.
The firemen worked under great am
Guilty owing to the intense cold. The
wind blew fercely tanning the names
henumhing the faces and hands of the
fremen. The smoke was very deep ana
nvernowerinp. and it filled all the build
ings in which the firemen had to go, pc
sides hanging in an enormous cloud over
the scene of the conflagration.
The four-story warehouse at y Moore
street, which as one of the first to catc1
fire. as used chiefly for storage of lum-
her. The fire was so close to the East
SIDE Elevated ttodu thfit lii- s'SNo'''' >
l.acid avenue trains were blocked.
At $50 o'clock it was believed that 40
lives had been lost. 1t was then learned
that there had been $50 girls in the bag
factory. but that all had escaped in
safety.
Bernard Blair, fireman of the fire
boat Robert A. Van Wyck. was at work
OH the third floor of the storage ware
y .tr n
the fire began. The smoke was SO thick
that he was overcome. Fireman SUM-
merhar went mp ii ladder after Blair. He
found him on the floor and carried him 10
a window.
Blair partially recovered and tried to
helm himself down the ladder. The rungs
Of the ladder were coated with ice and
Blair slipped. Summerhar could not pos
sibly save him, and Blair landed on his
head in the street Ills skull was frac-
tured.
Other fircmen were cut by fragments OF
glass and portions of the iron shutters.
which were broken from the windows of
the adjoining storehouses.
In the rear of the baeging factory were
rows of small old buildings, filed with
hay, grain feed. cotton, jute and bag
ging All were abaze In an instant. II
seems. and the flames gathered Roadway
MS they leaped to the larger structures
In the block.
Peter Hartman's hotel. ut IS Whitehall
street, was quickly ablaze The flames
attacked the building from the rear and
ate their way through the entire struc-
ture.
Next the blaze attacked the roof of the
Eastern hotel whitehall and South
streets. and licked its way downward
with great rapidity. Fortunately, the
dodgers were of the working class and
few were in the hotels at the time.
The Whitehall hotel was soon emptied
and without panic. But it was no,
cleared of guests before it was includes
in the sweep of the flames. which seemed
to proceed from every portion of tn,
building simultaneously.
Total loss from the fire is variously es
mated at from 100000 to $, 900, o0o
A list OF the tenants in the entire block
every one of whom lost through fire o.
water. is as follows,
On South street. Eastern Hotel I n
Meier X Co, commission merchants
storage; Wright & Travis commissio,
merchants: George I Swna, a. ~, a..