Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-05-09
GALE TANNED THE FIRE.
Entire Business Portion of tie
Town Is Destroyed.
SIX PEOPLE WERE KILLED.
The Fire Began About Noon and
Ragged for Nine Hours Before Ii was
Brought Under ControI-The Losses
Aggregate About SI5,OOO,OO0.

|
| go@S .P ii .s.olle and 10000 people
made homeless, is the result of bit
of wire accidentally getting into the
| shredding machine of the American
| Fibre Co, yesterday at the corner of
| Davis and Union streets. The fire
started between u and l o'clock in
| the afternoon, and owing to this fact
the loss cf life will be comparatively
| small. The fibre factory was a
wooden shell, full OF infiammable ma
| terial and in Il few moments was
| mass of flames. The wind. which
was already blowing strong from the
southwest, seemed to be possessed
with a sudden fury and soon was car
| rying destructive embers all through
the city. the fairest portion of which
| lay right in the course of the wind.
Some delay was experienced in get
| ting an alarm, and the engine at the
waterworks suffered a mishap and
nothing more than ordinary pressure
could be obtained. BY this time the
flames had swept to the Boston
store, huge furniture establishment
belonging to w. w. Cleveland d Son,
who were also proprietors of the fibre
! factory.
took course right through a sec
tion where block after block of
frame buildings, mostly occupied by
negroes, had been erected. Here
was where the fire department lost
control, as simultaneously in half
dozen places, some of them six blocks
from the main fire. roofs were seen
to burst out in flames.
h, ~. hi l.
set on fire whole rows of buildings
and attracted at first crowd of Curl
Gus sightseers. who seemed to be fas-
cinated by the sight until they
learned that their residences, too
were in danger of total destruction.
1t took four hours for that reSstless
sea of flames to consume every build
ing in the square of six to eight
blocks wide from Davis street. near
where it started, to the Hogan creek
viaduct. distance of over one and !;
half miles, and then, not satisfied
with eating the heart of the residence
portion of the city out, it doubled on
itself and came roaring up the prin-
cipal thoroughfare of trade, destroy
ing everything in what was the orig
inal incorporation of Jacksonville.
called out to keep back the crowds
and the fire department began to use
dynamite to blow up houses a block
from the fire and thus prevent the
fire from spreading. So fierce was
the blaze, however, and so strong
had become the wind that millions OF
sparks and flying burning shingles
spread over five or six blocks, setting
the roofs of the houses on fire in ad-
vance of the department.. Soon SEN
ator Taliaferro's residence. then the
adjoining houses on that block were
ablaZe, and in spite of all efforts to
save the Windsor and the st. James
hotels, both hostelries were quickly
enveloped in flames. For about an
hour the guests in the Windsor hotel
h%d been packing their trunks and
went away with loaded trunks and
grips.
Leaping across the street from the
Windsor. the flames attacked the Sell
house, and then the Methodist par
Sonage and in Il few moments Trinity
Methodist church was mass of
flames. When the fire got started
on Main street, the closely adjoining
buildings went one after the other,
the blaze, rising hundreds of feet
high, quickly setting the buildings
across the street on fire.
Then the Hubbard hardware stree
caught fire, and the people scattered
when they saw what had happened.
Hundreds Of pounds of powder and q
great deal of dynamite were stored
i'll this building. In ten minutes
there was a roar and the building col
lapsed like an eggshell. The dyna-
mite and the powder had exploded.
Down the street the fire spread
with rapidity and the entire section
of Bay street from Market to Main
street and extending for i've blocks
back, was burning all at once. The
city building went, the central fire
department station, the armory, the
county court house, the clerks Office
with the county records, the criminal
court house, the city jail and the
Catholic church and orphanage, st.
Johns Episcopal church and the
Catholic convent. All this destruction
was wrought in less than four hours.
At $50 the fire was checked at the
intersection of Laura and Bay streets,
where the Commercial bank is locat-
ed, which went up in flames, the
Western Union telegraph office being
just across the street, and not dam
aged.
Six lives are reported lost in the
confiagraton.
The fire burned district reaches
from Burbridge street on the north
to st. Johns river on the south,
distance of not quite two miles. The
width of the desolated area is 13
blocks.
The suburban settlements, with the
exception of La Villa, are intact. La
Villa was badly hurt. Thousands of
persons are on the streets homeless,
with practically all of their worldly
possessions upon their backs. The
depots of the railroads, situated in
the southeastern section. have been