The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1899-02-03
BUSINESS HOUSES BURNED.
a Conhagratior at Columbus, o Destroyed
Property to the Amount OF
About Ss5O,OOO.

COLUMBUS, o., Feb. 2.-The most SER
ious confagration which has visited
Columbus since the million dollar Chit
tenden hotel fire OF 1898, visited Co
lumbus Wednesday night Half a
block of fine buildings in the heart of
the business portion of the town have
been destroyed and the department
have not yet gotten the flames under
control. The fire is thought to have
started in the basement of the Dunlap
building occupied by the Chicago
Bankrupt Clothing Co. 1t swept
up the elevator shaft and soon the
whole building was ablaze. Several
alarms were sent in and the whole de-
partment, although doing their best
work, seemed to have little effect in
staying the progress of the flames.
The audience in the High street thea
ter, which is across an alley from the
burning block, was dismissed in a
hurry and this crowd was soon swelled
to enormous proportions by mob of
excited people from all parts of the
city.
The fire soon communicated to the
Jones block on the left and the SOluder
e Bright building on the right, and
these, with the wholesale millinery
store of SOluder & Bright and the
store of d. s. Ambach, clothing, were
as complete wrecks as the Dunlap
building. A fire wall, four feet thick,
separated the fine block of Green,
Joyce & Co., wholesale dry
goods and notions, from the
others, but this was no barrier
and at 1 o'clock Thursday morning the
fire had eaten its way through and was
burning fiercely in the upper stories.
At 1850 with scarcely any warning the
front and rear walls of the Dunlap
building, as though rent asunder by
an explosion fell, one on High street
and the other completely filing
| the alley in the rear with
bricks and debris. Fortunately
the police had kept the street fairly
clear, or the loss of life would have
been enormous. AS it was a number
of firemen were caught while flying
from the crumbling walls. Whitley
Davis is missing, and while his COM
rades and the police are making every
effort to discover his remains, they
have not yet been found.
Capt. Jack Welsh is badly bruised
about the legs and body, seriously in
| jured; Otis V. Kilbourne, bruised about
head and body, may die; John Dona-
hue, hurt internally and scalp wounds;
Charles Conner, badly injured; Bob
Kerrins, also badly bruised; Al Reeves,
Pat Sullivan and William Swift
are also more or less injured;
Miss Carrie Johnson, a young lady, was
knocked down and run over by hose
reel Her right leg was broken, the
bone crushed out of all shape. She
has numerous other injuries and is in
precarious condition. Scores of other
people were slightly injured when the
walls gave way, by the flying debris.
The State Journal places the entire
loss at $3.50, ZOO.
The losses, roughly estimated, are as
| follows:
Green, Joyce e Co., building. $3.50, 600
Green, Joyce 81 Co., stock. Co., 0C
Dunlap building. .... $4,000
Chicago Clothing Co., stock. 100000
Soluder, Bright & Co., building. 70 O0C
Maccauley, millinery stock. $4,000
Jones building .- $4,000
Gratigny, restaurant. $500. unknown
Columbus Electric Light Co. SOC
Columbus Gas Co. SOC
At 1:15 the fire was burning fercely
and it was thought that the Chitten-
den hotel is doomed, as the ad joining
building on Spring street is on fire
| DQECInENT M'VINT EV III