The San Francisco call., 1899-05-11
FLAMES DESTROY
SKAGUAY BLOCKS
Seven Buildings Re-
duCed to Ashes.
TOWN HAS A NARROW ESCAPE
TOTAL DESTRUCTION BARELY
AVERTED.
Passengers on the Cottage City Es-
innate the Loss at About
Eighty Thousand
Dollars.
TOTAL DESTRUCTION Barrel Y
AVERTED.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

VICTORIA, B. c., May 10.-According
to news received tonight by the steamer
Cottage City, the town of Skaguay had a
wonderfully narrow escape from destruc-
tion by fire on the morning of Thursday,
May 4. The Skaguay Alaskan says it is
generally conceded by every citizen of the
gateway city that it was only by a mere
Providental accident of the elements that
the fire did not wipe out the entire town
and leave all the inhabitants huddled at
the end of the wharVes or on the side
hills awaiting the arrival of the first boat
for relief from destitution or starvation" "
This, says the Skaguay paper, is no eX-
aggerated picture.
All that remained of a once thriving
business block of seven buildings in the
heart of Skaguay when the Cottage City
left was a heap of smoldering ashes,
burned tin cans of all sizes, tools and
other metal articles, burned and twisted
out of shape, together with other debris
that make up the ruins of great fire.
Every particle of wood was reduced to
ashes. and barring the debris the ground
was as bare as before the f1rst building
was erected.
The fire started in the Meyer building.
1t is said that family named Broemser,
who had a fiat in that building, moved out
the day before and left open a connection
in the stoVeplpe leading 10 the roof. The
sparks from the fire in the store below
flew out through this opening into some
intiammable material. The floor being va
cant, the fire got a good start before I
was discovered. When first seen the
flames had burst through the roof of the
Meyer building.
Citizens hurriedly gave the alarm and
Skaguayans responded to the clang of
the firebell. The volunteer fire depart
ment and the hook and ladder company,
aided by numbers of willing workers, were
soon at work Before they could get a
stream on the building the flames leaped
across into the building occupied by the
Brown Shoe Company. The cOnt1agrauon
had then gained considerable headway,
and on it went, licking up one building
after another until the whole block of
seven structures was razed.
The owners and the names of the build
ings destroyed, excepting the Meyer
block and the Brown Shoe Company,
mates his loss. including stock and build
ings at $4,000. The shoe companys losses
will amount to over S2OO The total loss
by the confiagration is variously eStmat-
ed by the Cottage City's passengers at
from $40, 900 to $50, 900.
While the Cottage City was in port
everybody was congratulatlng eVerypQqy
else on the escape of the town. and the
firemen We're being loudly praised for
having confined the fire within the
burned block Had there been the least
wind. it is said, nothing could have saved
the town 1t is not known whether the
burned district will be rebuilt this sum-
mer as several of the owners are away
and as yet know nothing Oh tle IusS lneS
have sustained.
After the fire the Skaguayans began an
agitation for better fire protection. The
Skaguay Alaskan says that had the city
a chemical engine, when the upper part
of the Brown store was discovered ablaze,
they would have been able to contine the
fire to the upper part of it and saved
SIS 900 worth Of goods, which now are a
total loss The water supply was very
moor. the pressure being quite inadequate.
While the fire was in progress Ed Drew
quarreled with Joe Bunyan and spat in
his face Bunyan seized a bottle and
struck Drew on the head. Drew then
ran outside, and picking up a rock threw
it through the glass door at Bunyan,
Bunyan attacked Drew with hatchet,
arrested Drew is in a doctors hands.