Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-02-11
CONFEDERATION SPENDS
FORCE; C..Ts.IZENS RUINED

2 IALltO AO 1lYAD
=
!. hold goods that had been moved out
for safety were licked up by the flames
in the street.
thousands are homeless and many
thousands without employment. A re-
lief movement has been organized, and
Mayor John Henchliffe says that Pat
erson would be able to care for her
own without appealing to the charity
!: OF other communities. The great man.
ufacturing plants of the place are safe,
and these will aid in the work of re-
Organization
Desperate Fight With Flames.
The fire was checked only after a
desperate fight that lasted until late
yesterday afternoon. Every city and
town within reach of Paterson sent
firemen and. apparatus.
A northerly gale gave the conflagra-
ton its impetus and carried it's burn
ing brands to kindle the blaze afresh
at. other points. The fremen made
stand after stand before the wall of
| fire, but were repeatedly driven back,
and when victory finally came to them
they We're exhausted.
| Two lives were lost and one man
was hurt. He was fireman from
Passaic, who had started with his en-
CINE company for this city. He fell
off the engine on the way and broke
both legs.
Fire Begins in Power House.
The fire began at the power house
of the Jersey City, Hoboken & Pater-
son Traction Co., which fronted on
Broadwa y, and extended block to
the rear on Van Houten street. 1t
commenced in the car shed and was
burning fiercely when one of the en-
ployes detected it. 1t was leaping
through the roof and the gale was
lifting It in forks and swirls when the
firemen arrived.
The Flames soon crossed Van Houten
street i'm one direction. Main street in
another and gaining vigor, burned I'm
checked down into the business dis
trict Every piece of fire mechanism
in the city was called out but fire and
gale were masters. A great torch of
fame rose high in the air, lighting up
the country for many miles, and car
ryinga threat and warning to the
people and property in it's path. There
We're efforts to rescue furniture and
stock, but the speed with which the
fire moved gave the rescuers little
time. Property was often moved to a
place of presumed safety, only to be
eve mutually destroyed. Many were
4 forced to flee, scantily clad, into
/ streets glazed over with ice and swept
! by the keen wind.
I Main street was soon arched over
with canopy of fire for a block and
then for two blocks. as the flames fas.
tened themselves upon building aftel
building. The firemen fought with des
peration, but the flames found new av-
enues in Ellison and Market streets
and got beyond control.
[. Calls to Other Cities.
Y Calls for relief went out to every
) city in this portion of the state, and
, the jaded firemen labored on through
the hopeless hours of the morning
: The city hall, a magnificent structure
: surmounted by great clock tower
situated on Washington, Ellison and
Market streets, finally caught, and
with it went all of the splendid bust
'Iness structures that surrounded it.
They made a great furnace of fire.
There was series of explosions ant
D scores of walls fell when the fire left
D them strengthless. Flying firebrands
0 carried the conflagration over some
0 buildings and around others, so that il
burned in an irregular course. These
brands finally cleared the tracks O
0 the Erie railroad and Ramapo avenue
J and, alighting on Straight street, start
ed another great area of fire, in which
n the destruction and desolatio1
n wrought We're nearly as great as in the
y other.
y This second great fire started at the
n Angle of Park avenue and Washington
istreet and swept almost unchecked un
It'll on these two great thoroughfares
there was no more fuel. On the RICH
OIL hand side of Market street it encoun
o. tered Hill cemetery as a barrier tt
0 check it, but on the left hand side, al
0 Carroll street, it claimed ST. Joseph's
0 church, a great classic, stone building
1t was on this second great fire thai
n the volunteer firemen from the out
n side cities did their most effective
y work.,
n n The final and one of the most des
n perate fights of the day occurred in the
:, midafternoon back in the first fir,
n area, at the Hamilton club, situated
at the corner of Church and Ellison
streets. The handsome club house
0 caught, and the exhausted firemer
We're rallied around it. The buildins
was doomed, however, but torrent O
water kept the fire to the premises
The four walls of the club house
stood, but the walls collapsed and tn
inner part was completely burned out
) When the case seemed most des
perate, when it looked as il the fir
would blaze it's way clear across thu
city, there were two deafening explos
ions and two of the frame buildings
in the fires path went up in the all
The firemen had destroyed them witt
dynamite and SO gained vantag
ground. The desperate expedient wa
= successful; the fire could get no fal
} Their in that direction and gradual,
: it was stemmed on the other side
y and the fight was won at last.
g Crowds Come to See Fire.
J. Paterson rests in a valley, and TIL,