The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-18
SOME PARTICULARS Of
THE BAL TIMORE FIRE

out of the business section of the citv
1t has swept down both sides of Ralti.
more street, the Broadway ,of BaIti.
more, for block after block, Where
yesterday morning great sky-scrapers
financial and office buildings of the
city-stood, are now heaps of crunn-
Ding ruins. Banks, newspapers. tele-
graph offices, wholesale houses. trust
companies, stores, warehouses and
many of the older class of dwellings
are gone.
twenty-five hundred separate build
lngs were destroyed before the fire
burned itself out on the western edge
and along the side of Jones Falls a
sluggish stream that runs through the
city
Twenty-Five thousand men and wom-
en- are out of employment. Insurance
companies have to meet the greatest
losses they have encountered since the
Chicago fire. 1t is expected thar elev-
en- local hre insurance companies will
fail Many of the New York. New
England and Western and foreign com
panies will be extremely hard hit.
There are hundreds of ruined mer-
chants. 1t will take years to restore
the city.
The great wholesale and financial
center of the city, together with oys-
ter packing houses, warehouses small
stores, lumber yards, docks. malt
houses. factories, the granite Office
buildings, We're wiped out in twenty
four hours, between II o'clock yester-
day morning and IL O'Clock this morn
ing, as if they had been figures on a
slate and wet sponge been passed
over them.
Busy Baltimore street is a wilderness
of twisted iron beams, tangled trolley
and telegraph wires, calcined brick.
crushed glass, bent and battered sheet
iron, and other wreckage
Side streets from the corner of Sharpe
and Liberty to Baltimore to Harbor
are in similar condition. Soldiers stand
with fixed bayonets at the corners OF
streets leading to the burned districts.
The city is under martial law All
saloons are closed. No business is
done.
The flames We're so fierce and the
heat so intense that supposedly fire
proof structures, like the Continental
Trust building, the Equitable and Cal
vert buildings, We're ruined in fifteen
ings seemed to melt as if they were
made of ice. Flames burst in the win |
dows. In an instant the buildings We're |
destroyed.
Ordinary brick buildings did not last |
three minutes each on an avera ge. Ev- |
cry available engine from New York, |
Philadelphia, Washington, Wilmington, !
and from places as far away as AL /
-oona and Harrisburg, REINFORCED the
Baltimore department. and played wa
ter on the flames. The streams had no
effect. Water was turned to steam be-
fore it reached the fire. The flames
capped across narrow streets. A strong
Wind was blowing. At times it reached
'orty miles an hour. The flames were
100 feet high.
Today dazed business men took sec
md breath. Various trade organiza-
ions, the Stock Exchange, Chamber
# Commerce, Board of Trade, financial
which We're all burned
'ut, looked the situation squarely in
he face. Men We're grave and deter
mined. It was decided to extend
redits. There will be legal holiday
or ten days, thus holding off all com
nercial paper now due and payable.
he city will devote $250,O0O or more,
necessary, as soon as the required
agislation is enacted for relief pur-
oses.