The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-04
Burned District Two and a Half
Miles Long BY Half a
Mile Wide.
Estimates of Property Damaged Run
as High as Fifteen Million
Dollars.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla, May 3.-Fifteen
million dollars worth of property gone
up IN smoke and 10O0O people made home
less is the result of a bit Of innocent
looking wire accidentally getting into the
shredding machine of the American FL
ber company today at the corner of Da-
Wis and Union streets. The fire started
between the hours of 12 and l o'clock in
the afternoon, and owing to this fact
the loss of life Will be comparatively
small. The fiber factory was a wooden
shell, full OF infiammable material and
in few moments was a mass of flames
The wind, which was already blowing
strong from the southwest, seemed to be
possessed with sudden fury and soon
was carrying destructive embers all
through the city, the fairest portion of
which lay right in the course of the wind
Some delay was experienced In getting
an alarm, and to add to the tragedy Of
fateful accidents the engine at the water
works suffered a mishap and nothing
more than ordinary pressure could be
obtained.
The conhagration extended so far as Is
definitely known, distance Of two and
a half miles by half mile wide. When
the fire reached Julia street it was a
roaring furnace, without any prospect
Of being put under control. The local
military companies were called out to
partment began TO use dynamite to blow
up the houses a block from the fire and
thus prevent the fire from spreading.
NO CHECKING THE FLAMES.
So fierce was the blaze, however and
so strong had become the wind that MIL
lions of sparks and flying burning shin
giles spread over five or six blocks set
ting the roofs of the houses on fire in
advance Of the department. Soon Senator
Taliaferrors residence then the adjoining
houses on that block were ablaze, ana in
spite Of all efforts to save the Windsor
and the st. James hotel, both hostelries
were quickly enveloped in flames. For
about an hour the guests in the Windsor
had been busy packing their trunks and
went away loaded with trunks and grips,
some unfortunately to the United States
hotel, but most Of them to Riverside.
Leaping madly across the street from
the Windsor, the flames attacked the
Sells house and then the Methodist par
sonage and In a few moments the Trinity
Methodist church was a mass Of flames.
The opera house block followed and the
Richards and Livingstone boarding
houses. desperate effort was made to
save the Baldwin mansion which was re-
Gently purchased by the Elks for $4,000.
No earthly power could save this build
ing and that entire block and the one
west was quickly a mass of flames. On3e
the fire got started on Main street, the
closely adjoining buildings went one after
the other. Paint shops with barrels of
oil were plentiful in this district and as
they caught fire one after another, the
blaze rising hundreds of feet nigh quick
ly set the buildings across the street on
fire.
DYNAMITE EXPLODED.
Then the Hubbard hardware store
caught and the people scattered when
they saw what had happened. Hundreds
of pounds of powder and great deal Of
dynamite were stored in this building.
In ten minutes there was a roar and the
building collapsed like an eggshell The
dynamite and the powder had exploded
Here again there was much danger for
tho flremen Cartridges began to explode