The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1902-06-25
BIC FIRE IN PORTLAND
FLAMES VISIT HEAVY DISASTER
ON THE CITY.
Six Blocks Consumed at East End
of Madison Bridge-Damage
About $4OO, ,OOO-Great Heat
Drives Away Firemen.
portland, Sunday, Oregonian.l

portland, Sunday, Oregonian.)
Fire, originating in the old Wolff &
Zwicker Iron Works last night, swept a.
way six blocks Of East Side waterfront
property, burned down the two east
spans of the Madison-street bridge. re-
duced East Water street to RUNS from
Salmon to Jefferson streets, and burned
so hotly about the great oi1-f11ed tanks
of the Standard Oil Company that it
sion would spread the flames out over the
river and along the entire water front.
The loss is approximately $4OO, 900, much
OF which is not covered by insura nee.
There was no loss OF life. It was 1880
when the alarm was turned in, end be-
fore the first engine company could reach
the foundry of the Phoenix Iron Works,
formerly the Wolff & Zwicker plant, the
roof was ab1aze, and the dry timbers
were carrying the fire in every direction.
The wretched water facilities along the
streets, and the absence of any means to
take the engines to the river,- (which was
directly beneath the roadway, made it
to do much more than spit at
the fire with few 3O-foot streams, and
in less than hall an hour the iron works
were in the center of a rapidly widening
zone OF fame. which soon extended south
beyond Jefferson street, and almost to the
Troy Laundry Company, near East Yam
hill. Every building in the district was
either leve1ed to the ground or left a
rumb1ing ruin, except the brick ware
houses of the Standard Oil Company,
whose contents were still burning at day
light this morning.
Immediately upon the arrival of Chief
Campbell it became apparent that all the
available force of the department would
be needed, and engine and company calls
brought apparatus flying from every di-
rection. 1t was hardlyrten minutes after
the outbreak of the flames that they ex-
the river, leaped into the tower and lick
ed up the boat sheds ON the north side
as if they had been paper. Wall after
wall crashed in, sending sheets of burn
ing lumber into the air, to fall on sur
rounding property and set hundreds Of
little fires in every direction. The Tor
pedo saloon On the south side of the iron
works, burst into fame suddenly in eve
ry part, and the fire, sweeping over and
under Hawthorne avenue; the approach
to the Madison-street bridge, comnuni-
the building occupied by that establish
ment as machine shop, and was beating
fercely upon the iron sheathed ware
house OF the Oregon Furniture company
before an added pressure obtained from
Grand avenue enabled the department to
check its progress.
The lightly built boat shed on the north
side of the shop served as an admirable
conductor OF the flames, and before any
-hing &C uld be done to hold them back
t,,ey were consuming the piles of lumber
on the pl:tforrn of the East Side Lumber
company and making their way rapidly
to the mill itself. which soon tumb1ed
down about the dock, sfapeless mass Of
charred or blazing timbers. Meanwhile
the underside OF tha dock end elevated
roadway YVES sendlag the fire to the
Stanlarl C;, Company's warehouse. The
cry OIL ''cil taiiksp, went up from all sides
and as the flames climbed a pile of greasy
barrels and shot up high aboNe the nest
of big watts there was E terrified sca:S
along Water street. Almost at the
time three sharp explosions came
somewhere inside the burning mass
five minutes later, with muffled r
that shook the ground a greas col
flre sailed high in the air, scared Sc
hundred feet above the> heads o
crowd, aad finally disappeared,
rocket in smoke. Such an occurre1
such time led to the belief that t
works were indeed doomed, and
few minutes it was hard for polio
and firemen to make headway again
surging, struggling crowd, each p
bent on escaping with his life. As
ports followed, this Titan display of fire
works, however, l,eop1e began to stop
and look back, and it was not long be-
fore it became known that the pyrotech-
MICS were due to the explosion of boiler
in the iron works.
just below the east approach of the
Madison-street bridge which was blazing
holly all the time, lay moored
the free baths, opened only a few
days before. It looked as if they,
too. must yield to the whitening tongues
Of fire that were shooting toward them.