New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-05-30
FIRES CAUSE UNKNOWN
Continued from lrst page.

OF the Public Service Corporations oil stora sc
house took fire. Division Superintendent An
drew Bliss and a force OF men put out the
flames before the oil was ignited. Dukes House.
an old-time Hoboken hosiery at the ferry land
ing. on fire for few minutes. The Hoboken
department ran hose 10 the roof, and in putting
out the flames drenched the crowd which was
waiting for streetcars in the square below.
The paint shop OF the Hamburg-American Line
fire for few moments
When the fire was discovered IN the barge
Churchill, moored at the outer end Of Pier u
the alarm was given for the Lackawanna rail-
ways fire department, and lines were extended
from the pumping station. but so rapid was the
progress of the flames that John Donovan, a
watchman and an experienced officer, who
served twenty years the Jersey City
police. realized that the blaze too dangerous
for the company's employees 10 cope with. He
sent call summoning the Jersey City fire ap-
paratus. The nearest box was at Provost and
Thirteenth SITS, quarter OF a mile from the
blazing boat; strong breeze was blowing. and
when the local fremen arrived the flames had
reached the freight pier and ran through it like
wlldhre The iremen were hampered by the
scarcity Of FIRE hydrants.
The railway had depended on its vigilant
watchmen and its own frenen 10 fight fires, and
its tracks closed the avenues 10 the piers.
Thirteenth-st., presumed TO be opened. is
dumping ground. The fremen who arrived first
at the scene sent out a second alarm, calling all
the big engines and heaviest trucks of the de-
partment, but before they could get into action
the flames had swept to the north and en-
veloped Pier No. H. which, like No. u. was
stacked with merchandise.
a GENERAL ALARM SENT OUT.
Fire Chief Conway on his arrival sent out
general alarm, all the piers and shipping
along the river front of Hoboken seemed
doomed Water was pumped from the river.
The flames moved rap;dly northward, despite
the efforts OF the local nremen and the fire tugs
Of the Erie and the Merritt Chapman Wreck
ing Company.
Chief Conway communicated by telephone with
the Hoboken Fire Department officials, and ad-
vised them to turn out their entire force and
endeavor to arrest the spread OF the flames at
the gap north OF Pier 8, which divides the two
cities. He also appealed 10 Chief Croker, the
flames were beyond the power Of the Jersey City
department to subdue The Erie tugs arrived
quickly and turned their attention first TO Pier
Is. filed with merchandise, which if de-
stroyed would endanger the Ere property,
it is close to the Fries railway yard
and piers. The space between the two piers
was choked with barges and one float Transfer
boat No. Is, large ard powerful tug, steamed
IN. and while it poured stream the blazing
boats had another turned to drench its crew.
The heat was intense This tug towed out the
float and the four barges that had escaped the
blaze and opened a wide gap for the EIie's
fire tugs Rochester and Buffalo, which poured
streams alternately on the burning Churchill
and the five barges lying alongside of Piers
y and H. The Chapman, the big wrecker
steamed in and poured two strong streams on
the burning boats and pier. The tugs Of the
Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and the Cen
trial Railroad companies Joined the tugs in
action
Six boxcars loaded with merchandise and one
empty boxcar we're hauled from the burning
piers but the cars and contents were afame and
were hauled to a side track and left TO burn.
The fire, fed by the floats and coal barges.
easily reached Pier 10, coaling station, and
ran through the middle Of the pier beyond the
reach Of the streams from the fire tugs and
boats on the river and the hremen shore
The flames crossed TO the big coal pier known as
No. 9. which was recently constructed and cor
tanned all the latest devices for handling coal
with celebrity. 1t a three story structure
about forty feet high, and the superstructure
were OF yellow pine. The flames ran along il as
II II a train Of powder. 1t sent up flames
that We're carried far over the Hoboken line
and endangered not only the freight piers Of
the LackaWanna station and ferry. and the
property Of the Hamburg and North German
Lloyd steamship companies, but fell Ike rain
on the roofs OF homes and warehouses and kept
in service hundreds OF citizens who judiciously
organized themselves into bucket brigades and /
materially aided IN preventing the flames sweep
ing the city.
The hrernen coura geously and tenaciously 4
fought at Pier s, and succeeded in staying the /
flames until the weight OF the tracks caused the I
flre-eaten timbers TO collapse. and the super /
structure for a stretch OF five hundred feet went
down with crash. II was this collapse that I
gave the fire fighters hope that they would /
attain the mastery. The fan followed by a .
huge volume OF sparks.
The big coal pier. No. 9, was equipped with /
expensive machinery to facilitate the loading 4
Of coal boats 1t raised a loaded car or A plat /
form as rapidly express elevator ascends /
emptied the contents OF the car into A 1
chute, which poured the load into q !
boat. It is said that It unloaded cars ct the |
rate OF one minute.
There were some marvellous escapes from the |
barges which were packed in between the piers |
which caught fire first. The nre spread among |
them with almost unbelievable rapidly Cap
tains who at the first alarm ran 70 look at the I
fire a moment later were scurrying back 10 their |
barges TO save their families Some Of the men |
who fingered too long escaped only by swim
ming 10 tugboats IN the stream.
The women and children OF the barge feet |
were hustled back f:om the burning piers by |
the hremen and. carrying bundles and boxes |
and bird cages went into the lumber and freight /
yards. There they went into camp. the women |
worrying over the chance OF harm Detailing their
men folks. most OF whom remained behind 10 |