Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-07-19
Million Dollar Loss in the Confagfa-
 tiOn of Saturday Night.
A SCREENING SCENE OF DISASTER.
The GE1 Was Helpless Without Water to Combat the Fire King Who Reigned Supreme and Spread De- YastaiOn in His Track "A LiSt
 of Heavy Losers.

The mos, disastrous ccnfiagration in the history of the territory occurred on Saturday night in Prescott. The most conservative estimate so far heard of the loss places it at not less than Si.- 100000 and estimates run as high as S2.- coo. .0OO
 The fire started in room over J. E. Burchard's bettling works on South MontezunIa street. where a man is sad to have been lying in bead Ireadtng a paper Tn some manner the paper on the wall took fire and instead of the man attempting to extinguish it he ran nus and gave an alarm of fire man hastily entered the room with a bucket of water and flashing it on the flames partially extinguished them He start ed after another bucket of water but the pressure was so light and the wa ter was so long in filling the pail that by the time he returned the fire was be- -yond his control When the firenfen ar rived and water was turned on. the fire had not gained such headway but it would have ben possible to have stay ed it's progress. had there been any Wa ter The water barely run out of the nozzle of the hose under the slight pres
 
 hose in disgust. Tn the meantime. ow- ing to the highly infiamma ble condition of the building. the flames made rapid progress and within a faw minutes hal burst through the roof and spread very rapidly. At this time the alarming con ditions which prevailed in the town pre- sented themselves and the most heroic measures were immediately resorted to n
 was sent for and a number of buildings were blow up in the hopes of saving the magnificent Scopel block. but all ef forts proved unavailing The flames licked up ths fiattened buildings. send ing their frey forks high in the air, as if laughing al the futile efforts to stay their progress. The heat was intens- and buildings on the alley were soon a mass of fiamss and the Scopel stone S1iiidlng became roaring furnace. Across the street to the building of Mrs. -I> L. Fisher and to those in the block west of it they leaped. and from this time on their progress along the block was uninterrupted although a number Of buildings were blown. One after an oth7r succumbed to the flames. every building in the block to Granite street being burned
 It was hoped that the fire could he checked at Hotel Burke. but it speedily swept across the street to the Kelly X, Stephens block. Getting in advance of the flames there the meat market of Joe Roberts was blown up in the hopes that the vacant spac5 between it and the Brinkmeyer hotel might save the latter building Again were all calculations knocked out and the Brinkmeyer was also soon in flames. and the fire made q lsap across the street to the Bashford- Burmister ware hoIise across the alley from the Journal Miner office. It then became apparent that the entire block on the north side of the plaza was doomed. and it seemed impossible that the flames could be stayed in their pro- gress until the northern limits of the town were reached. All the residents of that section had their ho1sehold ef- fleets packed up ready to move out at moments notice The bedding and a portion of the furniture of the Con gr5ss house and Johnson house were moved out and in many instances the effects of private families were also moved away to places of safety.
 While hundreds of man Were engaged in fighting the flames and in removing goods to places of safety. the balance of the population. including women and children watched the appalling work of c dstTucticn. which was going on and sigh of relief went up from thousands of threats when il became apparent that the fire had been gotten under con troI.
 The fire started at 10:45 o'clock D. m.. and it was 5:15 a. m. before it was un- der control. The burned district com prises the G'thern part of the block in which the Schuerman house is located from MOntezuma street to Granite street; all of the block on the wast side If the plaza between Goodwin and Cur ley street; all If the block bounded by Gurley. Granite. Montezuma and Willis streets; all of the block bounded bv Gurley. Mcntezuma. Cortez and Willis ssreets.
 Only one or two casualties reported. One man working on the roof of an awning on the east sid of Cortez street fell to the ground and re1nai ined uucou- scious for twenty-four hours 4 fire man had his arms pretty badly burned and another man is reported to have had his leg broken by flying 1 bris from a building which was being blown up.
 The scene during the fire was beyond all power of description. Wagons and buggies. m on horseback. men women and children afoOt were scurrying hither and thither. the human part of 1t being more or less excited
 4 busy scene was presented at the de pot Every engine in the yards had