Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-02-11
Department Aided BY Engines From
Washington, Philadelphia and
Wilmington.
Daily Record, American, Sun and
News Put Out of Business.
The Continental and Union Trusts
Co.'s Massive Office buildings
Were Destroyed.
The Fire Is still Cutting Down
Blocks of Buildings With
Irresistible Force.

Baltimore, Md, Feb. 5, 2 a. m. Mon
day.-At this hour the fire is utterly
beyond control and the residential dis
tricts are in imminent danger.
The burned area is three-quarters of
a mile long and from two to eight
blocks wide. More than fifty blocks of
business buildings have been con-
sumed.
The Monumental theater is burning
and the fire has reached Jones Falls.
Directly opposite lies the old residen-
tial section of the city. 1t is thought
nothing can save it.
The firemen are absolutely power
less to stay the sweeping of the
flames. Almost all the telegraph Of
fees are burned and the city will soon
be cut off.
While it may be days before an ap-
proximate estimate of the damage can
be made, it is believed that the loss al
ready aggregates 500, 000, 900.
Latest Estimates.
fItufEitI1 LOSS .......$IOO.OOO,OOO
LIVES LOST ............ 20
PERSONS INJURED ...... 100
BUILDINGS RUINED ....... 1000
FIREMEN KILLED ...... 8
Area burned, one square mile.
Baltimore, Md, Feb. S.-The fire
which broke out a few minutes before
IL o'clock Sunday morning in the
wholesale dry goods house of John e.
Hurst & Co. has ragged with unre-
strained fury continuously, and is
steadily eating its consuming way east
ward on Baltimore street, after having
destroyed almost all of the large stores
and warehouses in the wholesale dis
trict around Hopkins place and all the
buildings on both sides of Baltimore
street from Howard to Holiday street,
from Charles and Baltimore to Charles
and Lexington, and on Fayette street
from Charles to Holiday, including a
total of about twenty blocks of the
most modern and substantial buildings
in Baltimore, involving a loss which
cannot now be estimated, but which
has certainly already reached $30,000,-
900 or $40, 000, 900.
Dynamite Used to Check Fire.
After since about 6 o'clock, when
darkness came, the fire department, al
though aided by engines from Wash
ington, Philadelphia, Wilmington and
the surrounding suburbs, has been ut
terly powerless to make any effective
resistance to the consuming element,
though for hours as many as 400
streams of water were thrown into the
flames. Indeed, so terrific has been
the heat ever since the fire started,
and so dense and suffocating the vol
ume of flying sparks and burning Gin
ders, that it was difficult for the fire.
men to stand long within fighting dis
lance of the flames, while early in the
afternoon several trucks and engines
were. hopelessly disabled by timbers.
At 7 o'clock the situation was so Ges-
perate that Chief Horton decided that
the only thing left to do was to dyna-
mite buildings at threatened points,
and thus prevent, as far as possible, a
further spread of the flames.
Fire Department Helpless.
In pursuance of this plan, a number
of buildings on South Charles street
between German and Lombard were
blown up. Subsequently the splendid
structure of J. w. Butts & Co., notion
dealers at Charles and Fayette streets,
was dynamited, and then the Daily
Record building, Ross drug store and
others. But this heroic remedy merely
delayed, but did not seriously impede
the onward march of the conflagration,
and for two hours or more the fire de-
partment had stopped, practically
helpless and resourceless.
Union Trust Building burned.
Following the rapid destruction Of
the palatial commercial buildings in
the wholesale district the cyclone Of
roaring flames burst into Baltimore
street, licking within d few minutes
the seven-story Mullins hotel like an
insatiate monster and rapidly rolling
with irresistible force both eastward
and westward, cutting down wholesale
and retail houses, manufactures,
shops, jewelry stores, furniture empo-
RUINS and restaurants. At Charles
street the remorseless tide swept on
down Baltimore street. and also turned