New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1904-02-10
4 Terrible FIRE
At BALTIMORE, MD.
Nearly all Of the Business Portion
of the City Completely Wiped
Out Of Existence.
The Loss will Amount to Fully Forty MIL
lions. The Firemen were Utterly Help.
less Before the Roaring Furnace. The
Nearby Cities were Appealed to for
Help but Aid was Useless.

Nearby Cities were Appealed to for
Help but Aid WAS Useless.
Baltimore, Feb. 8.-This most destruct-
I've confiagration in the history Of Bal
tlmore ragged practically unchecked DUR
ing many hours, completely destroyed
scores OF the largest business houses in
the wholesale district and involved losses
mounting into the millions
Owing to the wide extent of the ca
lanlity it will be tomorrow before even
an approximate estimate can be made,
though it is certain that It has ALREADY
exceeded $5o,ooo,ooo
The fire broke out shortly before II
o'clock this morning in the wholesale
dry goods store Of John E. Hurst & Co.,
on Hopkins Place, in the heart of the
business district, with series of loud
explosions which were heard in remote
parts Of the city and spread with fear
ful rapidity
In a half hour there were a dozen big
warehouses in the wholesale dry goods
and notions district burning fercely.
The entire city fire department was
called out, but was utterly powerless 20
check the spread of the flames, which
were aided by high winds, and by noon
there were savage fires in at least thirty
big warehouses, and the conhagration
was steadily eating its way into success
slye blocks, east, north, west and south.
Building after building fell a prey to
the flames and apparently there was
no possible means of arresting the on
ward sweep of destruction.
On Baltimore street the block between
Liberty and Sharp was soon ablaze, then
came the next block east to Hanover,
and after that the block on the south
SIDE to Charles street broke out into
| flames, the Consolidated Gas company's
building and Oehna's Acme hall burning
| fercely
| Meanwhile there were stores north of
Baltimore street being similarly con-
| sumed. Mullins hotel caught and other
buildings near it. West Of Liberty street,
On the south side of Baltimore, the block
was doomed, and the big Baltimore Bar
gain house also caught Down in Hop
klns Place, where the conhagration start
| ed, Hursts building and the other whole
sale houses on both sides of the streets
crumbled and fell.
The big dry goods houses of Daniel
/ Miller & Sons and R. M. Sutton & Co.
were soon ahame and along German,
east and west from the Hurst building,
there were dozen buildings burning
and scores were threatened The spec
| tacle of ruin and destruction from any
point in these doomed blocks was
something terrifying.
| Mass & Kemper's big wholesale store
| on Baltimore street quickly succumbed
| to the flames and the walls fell with a.
crash that was heard for many squares.
The Hurst building was utterly de-
stroyed, not even a wall ten feet high
being left standing, and was apparently
the center of the cauldron from whence
| the flames radiated over the doomed
neighborhood.
On Hopkins Place the Hopkins Saw
! ings bank and the National Exchange
bank were Quilted by flames, the few
| streams of water that the fremen were
able to turn On them proving utterly
| Intellectual to even halt the destruction.
Here were the ruins of the John E.
Hurst y Co. structure and next to it
that of S. Hecht, Jr, & Sons, was in
flames. Adjoining was a large building
owned by the William Koch Importing
company, which also quickly was de-
| stroved.
| Across the street the Stanley & Brown
Drug company building fell sudden
prey, while fronting on the Baltimore
street side Of this block were the Rox-
bury Rye Distilling company, the build
ing occupied by SHERMAN & Todes, the
house Of Allen Sons & Co., which had
hardly been completed, while next to it
was the establishment of NJ Moses &
Co. On the corner was the building oc-
cupied by Messrs. Sugar & Shear and
/ a e
/ these were swallowed up in flames, and,
a cauldron of fire
At 80 o'clock Mullins hotel, sew
en-story structure at Liberty and Bal
tirnore streets, was in flames from gar
ret to cellar, and its great height and
narrowness acted as sort Of fue, which
converted the doomed building into a
huge and dreadful torch. All the guests
1 had been ordered tut of the build ;ng
shortly after the fire broke out in John
! E. Hurst's place. There was no panic or
/ confusion, and none were injured
Though every bit Of fire fighting ap-
/ paratus in the city was called into requi-
sition as the flames continued to spread.
the fremen realized that they had task
/ before them which was too great for
them to combat kilograms for fire en-
pines were sent to Washington and
Philadelphia, and about O'Clock SIX
engines arrived from Washington and
four from Philadelphia and joined in
the battle with the flames
Engines from stations in Baltimore,
Howard, Anne Arundel and Hartford
counties also arrived as soon as posi-
BE, some Of the apparatus travelling a
distance of thirty miles and more.
/ Water plugs in every section within
Ia radius of half a mile from the fire
were in use, and it is roughly estimated
that there were $50 hose all playing al
one time upon different parts of the
conhagration.
| With loud roars wall after wall top
4 pied into the streets and iremen ran fol
their lives.
q Two fire trucks burned and an engine
was buried by falling wall
The whole city was notified of the
conhagration by a terrific explosion
j which occurred some minutes after u