The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1904-04-23
TERRIBLE FIRE
At TORONTO, ONT.
Five or Six Million Dollars Worth
of Business Property a Mass of
Smouldering Ruins.
TWO HUNDRED And FIFTY FIRMS
HAVE BEEN PUT OUT OF BUSINESS.
One Human Life LIS Relieved to Have
Been Lost, and Fire-Chicf Thomp-
son Had IA harrow Escape, Break
ing "A Leg I'm al Desperate Leap for
Life.

Toronto, Ont, April 20.-The fire
that ragged throughout the night and uI
to an early morning hour in Torontot
wholesale and retail business district
was the most destructive in the his
tory of the city. The total loss is con
servatively estimated AT between S.
000, 900 and Sc, 900, 900. The principal
warehouses of the city were reduced
to ashes and nearly $50 firms were put
out of business. The area covered by
the fire is three blocks III length anG
varies from half a block to two blocks
in length, and from half a
block to two blocks in width
Every building on Bay street
from Melinda street southwark
to the Esplanade at the water front,
was wiped out, and the fire spread on
Wellington and Front streets and the
Esplanade along the water front, from
distances of a few hundred feet to a
whole block. The total number of
buildings destroyed we're: Bay street,
east side. 20; west side 80; Yelling
ton street, north side, II; south side,
Z; Front street, north, %; south, 81;
Esplanadae, 4; Piper street, /.
The Principal Losers.
Following is a list of the more i'm
portant firms burned out: E. & S. Cur
RE, ties; Pugsley, Dingman & Co, To-
ronto Soap Co, loss, 500, GOO; insur-
ence, $50, 900; Gillespie, AHley G. Co..
matters; w. r. Brock Co., dry goods,
loss on stock, $500, 000, insurance, $780,
900; Rolph, Smith & Co, Autograph
ers: Brown Brothers, s~tationers, loss.
5000, 600, insurance, $500 600; Gordon
Mackay & Co, dry goods, loss, $550,000
insurance. $500, 900; Atkinson Brothers,
fancy goods; Cockburn & Rea, MILL
ners; Dignum & Moneypenny, woolens.
loss, $4,000 insurance. SIS 000;Dodd's
Medicine Co.; Laight & Westwood, no
tons, loss $4,000 insurance, SIS, 600;
Richie & Ramsay, paper; Z. w. Gill
more & Bros, Silverware; Canada
Paint Co; Crown hotel; Brereton 4
Manning, furs; w. j.. Gage & Co. sta
TONERS, loss. 5000, 900, insurance, $780,
900; Copp, Clark & Co stationers, loss,
$500, 600 insurance, SITS 900; Warwick
Bros. & Rutter, loss, 5000, 900, insur-
ance, $3.50. 900; Gale Manufacturing Co.,
white wear, loss, $135. 900. insurance.
$100, 900; Gutta Percha & Rubber Co.,
loss, $500 900, insurance. $500, 900;
Charles Cockshut & Co, woolens, less,
$500, 900, insurance, $3.50, 000; o. Eek
ardt CaSket Co. loss, $500, 600. insur-
ance, 500, 900; Wyld, Darling Co. dry
goods. loss, $500, 900, insurance, $780,
600; Dominion Fence Co, loss, $125.-
600, insurance $500; Buntin, Red
Co, s%tationers, loss, 100000 iusur-
ance. sos. 900; Corticelli Silk Co.; Car
law building; Gault Brothers & Co., dry
goods. g
A Marrow Escape-A Missing Man.
At an early stage of the fire Chief
Thompson was forced to jump from
the top of a building when trapped by
the flames. A network of wires broke
his fall and saved his life. He es-
capped with a broken leg. When the
chief made the leap for his life, a trav-
eler from Montreal was on the roof
with him, and no trace of him has
since been seen. 1t is probable that
he persisted i'll the flames.
The fire started in the elevator shaft
in the rear of the Currie building. Then
the flames spread across the street to
Brown Bros, and from there east to
Bay street. The wind, which had been
brisk, increased to a gale. A general
alarm was sounded, but before all the
force had reached the scene the fire
had leaped to the high buildings occu-
pied by Anley & Co. and Pugsley, Ding
man & Co. Then Sucking & Co.'S
building. adjoining Currie's on the
east, caught fire. Almost simultane-
ously flames began to shoot out of
the Brown building, and the firemen
were obliged to split their forces. The
roof of Dingman & Moneypenny's
building, on the northwest corner of
Bay and Wellington streets, was the
next place to burst into flames. In
incredibly short time Stockings,
Curie's, Browns and Dingman &
Moneypenny's were all a mass of
flames, and the streams Of water
thrown into them had no apparent eff
feet.
The Gale Manufacturing Co.'S i'm
plant, in the rear of Anley &
Co., was the next to fall prey to the
fire. and shortly afterward the flames
from the east side of Dingman &
MoneypenDy's were carried across to
the east side of Bay street to the Office
Speciality building.
Saved BY a Park.
1t was here that the firemen united
and made a desperate stand to
check the progress of the flames north
ward in the heart of the city. They
won, but not until they had lost con-
troll of the flames which were now
sweeping down Bay street toward the
river front. Tie Office of the Evening
TelegraIu, the next building north of
the Office Speciality building, was
slightly damaged in the two hours
fight with the raging flames.
1t was only the intervening park that
saved the Queens hotel, one of the
finest hoslelries in the country. So