Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1904-02-10
AWFUL CONFL AGRAT|OA.
Flames Destroy Business Portion Of
City of Baltimore.
LOSS IS 5000, 100000.
Every Wholesale House of Note, Several
Hotels, Theaters and Public Build
ings Wiped Out.

The fire has gained fresh Roadway and
is attacking the President street station,
said to be the eldest passenger station
in the world.
Z The FIRE is eating it's way along Presi-
dent street to Thames street. This IS
along the river basin and piles of lumber
are burning. The burning area is large
ly populated by Italians and large ele-
nent OF foreigners.
A number of packing houses along the
basin in the ne1ghbornood of President
street are threatened
Baltimore, Nd, Feb. $40 p. M
The Associated Press is able at this hour
to announce that the progress of the fire
has now been checked and that it IS
burning itself out. The last places to so
were the lcehouse and cCal yard of the
American Ice company. The coal yard
which spread out about 200 yards south
CT the iceh0use, was the means of stay
ing the march Of the flames On the aoutn
and Jones falls on the east.
The Norfolk wharf of the Baltimore
Steam Packet company, which was
stocked with barrels of rosin and other
miscellaneous merchandise, was destroyed
before the fire had attacked the merchan-
disc companys property. 1t took TWEEN
ty-seven hou1s to stop the progress of the
fire.
The estimates vary, ranging as high as
$780, 900 to 5000, 900. With the
fierce wind blowing, nothing could stern
the tide of the flames till all the property
In that section was burned to the waters
edge.
From the myriads of lumber yards on
the western side of Jones falls, the lit
tie muddy stream that flows through the
business section of the Criole city, the
flames leaped over to the other side of
the stream and were rapidly eating into
the mass of oyster and fruit packing
establishments and were rapidly crun1-
bling into ruins.
The changing Of the hospital ambu-
Iances bore evidence Of the minor casual
ties Up to this hour approximately
thiTty-five persons were injured, including
one fireman. The city government has
been entirely suspended and the city is
under complete military control.
The residence section of the city had
not been affected and the frefghters are
hopeful that the flames will not shift in
that direction.
Baltimore, Md, Feb S.-Noon-The
burning area stretches for blocks along
the harbor in the southeast section. the
old part Of the city The tremen are
working brayeiy but against fearful odds.
The area is enYeloped In smoke that
rises in great volumes and rolls away
over the rest Of the city. Stretching
back along Jones falls is a host Of build
ings Quilted by flames. From the Lom-
bard street bridge looking westward is d
scene of utter destruction. What We're
once large, substantial structures are now
mass Of smouldering debris, few walls
here and there standing like sentinels
over the ruins. Huge piles of shoulder
ing bricks, tangled network Of electric
wires, few remnants Of walls and here
pnd there telegraph poles burned an!
smouldering are all that remain to mark
the progress Of the conhagration in that
section.
Baltimore, NJ. D.. Feb. S.-The News
Union in its editorial today will say:
"Acres Of buildings, covering territory
more than half mile in length and from
strcyed in Baltimores great fire, which
started yesterday morning. The fire is
still burning and considering the high
wind and infammable nature Of the
buildings and material in freEt of it, may
continue to burn for hours yet.
the disaster, which now has reached pro-
portions far In excess of the Chicago fire
Of 1871. hitherto the greatest fire in the
United States.
mo end can be seen at the present
writing and to estimate the total loss is
the merest folly.
Firemen Are Powerless.
t'The wholesale dry goods, produce,
lumber, shipping, railroad and financial
interests have been destroyed Notwith-
standing the heroic efforts on the part Of
the local fire department, reinforced by
almost numberless fremen from Wash
ington, Philadelphia, Wilmington, New
ark, n. j, Harrisburg and New York
City, the fire at this hour is raging as
furiously as it was an hour after it oc-
CURED in the cellar of the John E. Hurst
company at Liberty and German streets.
{ Starting in the wholesale section, the
fire burned out every wholesale house of
note in the city, swept along through the
Baltimore and Fayette street retail sec
tons. destroyed all the prominent office
buildings, leveled banks and brokerage
offices, as we'll as the chamber of COM
merce and stock exchange in the financial
section, then sped Oh through the whole
about Exchange place. 1t finally brought
up at the Falls, where it invaded the lum-
Der district.
''This morning the fire was burning
fercely along Pratt street from Light
street to a point not yet determinabe 1t
had Quilted the old and new buildings
along that thoroughfare, and on the
wharves, which housed hundreds of firms
doing business all over the world 1t had
swept away the bridges over Jones Falls
and burned into the great freight termi.
mails of the Pennsylvania and Baltimore
& Ohio railroads on President street.
Millions of feet of lumber have gone
up in smoke already and the fire, still
burning with the fierceness which has
characterized it since it started, threat
ems the vast manufacturing district, fol
lowing the harbor lines toward Canton.
Fire Is Indescribable.
ITO desrbe the fire in detail which viii
go down in the history Of the world as
one of its greatest disasters, is simply
an impossibility, just as it is impossible
at this time to give an adequate idea OF
the amount Of loss, the number Of build
ing destroyed Or the firms which have
gone out Of business. These are facts