The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1900-07-07
It WAS A S|O,OOO,OOO FIRE
STARTED IN HOBOKEN, N. J.
over Two Hundred Lives Lost-Sev-
ernI Large Steamships Burned-A
Wonderful Scene-HospitaIs Are
Crowded-Fire Fighting Every
where.

New York, July Almost $l0,000,000
worth of property was destroyed, many
lives lost, many persons were injured and
at least 1900 lives were imperiled by fire
that started among cotton bales under Pier
No. 3 of the North German Lloyd Steam
ship company in Hoboken, N. j., Saturday.
In less than Is minutes the flames had
spread over an area of a quarter OF a
mile, extending outward from the shore
line from the bulkheads from 600 to 1000
feet away and had caught four great ocean
liners and dozen or more smaller harbor
craft in its grasp.
Bodies recovered were so badly burned
and blackened that identification was im-
possible. The hospitals in New York, Ho-
boken and Jersey City are crowded with
the wounded and men are being brought
in by scores.
Those who gathered along the shores
of the Hudson river to witness the great
conhagration saw a spectacle they can
never forget and one that always will
have conspicuous place IN the history
of New York. River and bay were envel-
oped in a pail of black smoke through
volcanoes, on the Jersey shore and in the
water itself, leaped like red sprites into
the sky. The surface of the water was
covered with floating and blazing masses
of freight thrown in haste from the DOOM
ed vessels, all unnoticed in the mad race
to rescue the more precious human life
threatened or being sacrificed in the great
ships. And through the pail of smoke
a great crimson sun, enlarged to thrice
its size by the haze, glared like an enor-
nous eye as it slowly sunk in the west.
Such was the tremendous spectacle
presented on the surface of the Hudson
river, as if it had been some holiday pa
geant 1t was made tragic by the rea-
lization that in that smoke and beneath
the turpid waters scores of lives had
been lost or were in their last desperate
struggles against death.
The spectacle was witnessed by thou
sands and thousands from both shores and
by other thousands who crowded upon
every ferry boat, every excursion boat,
upon every river craft that could be Sc
cured for the purpose. The crowd upon
the banks of the river was almost as great
as that which formed to witness the tri-
umphant return of Admiral Dewey.
Looking up the river towards the burn
ing ships and piers the scene was one of
wonderful but tragic grandeur The ship
Saale had been towed down the river until
Just off Fort Liberty, where she had gath
cred about a ring of fire boats and tugs,
all fighting to save at least the hull of the
doomed steamer. Flames were still leap
ing from her port holes and rushing out
of her cabins. At varying distances about
the burning ship lay coal and cotton
barges, all ablaze, each with one or more
tugs playing streams of water upon it.
Some of these barges and lighters were
loaded with inflammable stuff and the
flames leaped high in the air, while the
heat was so terrific that it was possible to
use only the small hose of the tugs Soon
one by one these affairs of fire slowly con-
sumed, most of them burning down to the
water line. Along the Jersey shore small
fires were blazing, started by the wreck
age from the great steamships.
On this side of the river the fire caused
the greatest excitement as the drifting
steamships and barges foated, all ahame,
to the New York shore and crashed against
the piers from Canal to Murray streets.
The fire department was called out at va
rious points along the threatened sections
and the spectacle was presented of the
firemen ON shore trying to fight fires, every
minute changing their situation.
The property loss to the North German
Lloyd company docks alone is placed at
$2,000000 The value of the great quaint
ties of cotton, oil and various other mer-
chandise on the docks has not been estimat-
ed. The loss to the North German Lloyd
Steamship company alone will probably
come close to SlO,0O0OO0, and the Bremen,
Maine and Saale were almost totally de-
stroyed. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse
was little damaged. The value of the Ham
burg American line steamer Phoenicia is
not known, but this will swell the amount
of the damage. The Thingvalla pier was
burned, and the dock of the Hamburg line
suffered greatly A number of small build
ings in Hoboken were destroyed along the
wharves, with their contents, but no idea
of these can be obtained. The Campbell
warehouses were totally destroyed, entail
ing loss of 81 100000
The greatest loss of life appears to be
on the Saale. She carried $50 people, and
was to have sailed for Bremen this after
noon. When the police boat captain went
aboard of her with his rescue party he saw
bodies lying all about the deck. The ship
Bremen carried a crew of 800, the Maine
$50, and if as many lives were lost on the