New-York tribune., 1900-10-30
LOSS EXCEEDS A MILLION.
TWENTY BUILDINGS HEAPED IN RUINS
AND OTHERS BURNED OUT.

TWENTY BUILDINGS HEAPED IN RUINS
AND OTHERS BURNED OUT.
The property loss from the big fire will be well
more than S,OOOOOO. That is the estimate Of in
surance men, of merchants who did business near
the Of the fire and know the region well, and
Of men who are accustomed to estimate fire losses
And every man who asked about this last
night said that 81 100000 would be extremely
conservative estimate.
1t is not hard to where this big loss comes
from. More than twenty buildings large and
small completely destroyed, to all purposes
of value. Many of them are nothing to-day but
heap of bricks, twisted iron and Charred timoers
of which the iron forms the least part for almost
all of the buildings in this part of the city are
made solely Of brick and wood. The ordinary
passer by who sees a heap of ruins and knows
what the building which stood there contained, and
how it was built can understand something OF the
extent Of loss. He does not judge apprecative-
ly Of a burned out building which still stands.
There are many Of these in the neighbOThood OF
Warren, Greenwich and Washington SITS. They are
mere Skeletons charred, soaked, burned out. Their
walls and floors gone. their fronts are
backened and weakened and they might just as
well be levelled to the ground. For half a block
either side of Warren-st.. the west side OF
Greenwich-st. presents this spectacle For a block
one side and half block on the other side Of
Warren-st. the same thing is to be seen in Wash
ingtOn-st. Warren-st itself. between Greenwich
and Washington SITS, is simply a mass of smoking
ruins.
ALL AWRY FROM EXPLOSIONS.
Besides all these building, which practically
total losses there are large numbers near by whose
foundations were shaken to the core by the big
explosions. Floors and beams shifted walls
cracked and the general settling resulting from the
shock has made many of them unsuited, if not un-
safe for occupancy. Within a radius of many blocks
costly plate glass wiTlows, mirrors and ordinary
window panes shattered by the explosions.
From Canal-st. to Futon-st. and from Broadway
to the river thousands of window panes were
shivered by the force of the explosions. and the
streets were paved with broken glass.
Besides this, telegraph and telephone wires suf-
fered all through the burned region. They
went down in the general crash. live wires and
it will mean some expense to replace them.
The downtown Warren-st. elevated station has
disappeared entirely. 1t might just we'll never
have existed. for not its ruins debris are
visible. 1t is just though it never stood there
and its sister station across the track is scarcely
better off, for this building Is torn and burned
from front to rear, from side to the other.
The greatest element in the loss is of course the
extent of the fire and the results of the explosions
In addition scarcely any property in the way Of
goods saved, sudden were the explosions
and quickly and fercely did the flames break
out and from building to building This stock
included produce of all sorts fruit. butter. eggs
cheese, tobacco, coffee, valuable drugs, chemicals
and medicines and large quantity of machinery.
The chief loss was produce for this region is the
fruit and produce district.
A SURVEY OF THE RUINS
A brief survey of the burned district shows the
following results:
Warren-st., from Greenwich-st to Washington-
St. completely burned out and destroyed on both
sides. In this block included the drugs and chem
icals of Tarrant & Co. and the NJ. J. Breitenbach
Company; the coffee roasting machinery of Eppen
Smith & Weiman. well great quantities of
coffee: crate crate and barrel barrel of fruit
butter. cheese. eggs and hardware, household and
ha 1uuIn and
big stores were burned down in this block
In Greenwich-st.. on the west side from Muir
[Eay-st Ey. almost TO chambers eleven stores were
toned above and valued at 100000 The latter was
am eves3 bit Of goods in them ruined Vaiuabie
stock OF shoes and footwear from the store of J.
as large quantities of produce printers materials
In Westinghouse, on the east side from Murray
ST. to three or four doors beyond Warren, almost
entirely produce, and ali of it destroyed. seven
wichst to- Was6ington ve sfoqes S Iro GTeen
out in the rear and their contents rendered almost
The principal causes of the great loss are con-
s5oeR from 9 the e2p8e0n eSTTTE avaged and the
with the buildings themselves. If such fire and
Of the city where property is more valuable the
is the loss Of more than 5' wenT more aPP2ns n! & AS II
| other losses named; is something to cOnjure with
million dollars tells the story too eloquently
| WESTERN UNION LOSS SMALL
The Western Union Telegraph COMPANY belittled
| its part of the loss yesterday
| An hours interruption of business is our in
| significant loss said E. p. Griffith wire chief of
| the company. at No. 1875 Broadway The damage
| to the wires was only trife They can be re-
| paired in three-quarters of an hour About sixty
wires in cables on the elevated structures close to
! terruption TO Hudson River and NSrthern New w
Jersey points. but within hour after these cables
were destroyed the cities which had been crIt OFF
| We're reached by way Of other points We reached
points north OF Greenwich-st by our East Eide
Ulres to One-hpndred- twenty -ffth-st. across
one U & and & &tWegty.hfth-st to Eighth-ave
! Communication with Albany was not interruntad
| We have more than one route TO the northern in
land cities" -- an