The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-20
BURNT ALL NIGHT.
Toronto, Canada, Suffers a Loss
of $lO,OOO,OOO.
The Principal Warehouses Are
Reduced to Ashes.
PUT OUT OF BUSINESS.
The Firms Suffering a Total
Loss Number $50.
Area Covered by the Fire Is
Three Blocks Long.
Chief Broke His Leg Jumping
from Top of Building.

Toronto, Ont, April 2o.-A fire that
ragged throughout the night and up to
an early hour today in Toronto's
wholesale and retail business district
was the most disastrous in the history
of the city. The total loss is conserva-
| tive estimated at $40 900. 600. The prin-
cipal warehouses of the city were re-
duced to ashes and nearly 25O firms
were put out of business. The area
covered by the fire is three blocks in
length and varies from half a block to
two blocks in width. Every building
on Bay street from Melinda street
southwark to the Esplanade to the
Water front were wiped out and the
fire spread on Wellington and Front
streets and the Esplarade along the
water front from their intersection
with Bay street for distances of a few
hundred feet to whole block.
The total number of buildings de-
! stroyed were: Bay street east side
90 west side 30; Wellington street
north side, II; south side, Z; Front
street, north side, p. south side, 27
Esplanade, 4; Piper street, 1.
Calls for Help.
Early in the evening when the fire
| assumed alarming proportions appeals
! for assistance were sent to London
! Hamilton, Montreal and Buffalo. Spec
] l1l trains were at once started from
these points but it was long after mid
| night before the first of them began
/ to arrive and in the meantime the To-
cal fire department We're having the
| fight of their lives. From the time the
/ nre started the north side of Wei
/ lingtOn street, q short distance east of
Bay street in the Z and S Currie neck
wear manufacturing plant, until it
burned itself out at daybreak, there
/ was not moment when q shift of the
| wind in the north would ont have re
4 suited in the destruction of the grea GER
/ part of the city. 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 nei-
work of wires broke his fall and saved
! his life and he escaped with a broken
leg. When the chief made the leap
for his life, a traveller from Montrea
was on the roof with him and no trace
| Of him has since been seen. 1t is pro
babIe that he perished in the flames
Started in Elevator Shaft
The fire started in the elevator shaft
Thence the flames spread across the
street to Brown Brothers 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 occupied by Ansley &
| Co, and Pugsley Dingman & Co. Then
Currie's caught fire. Almost simultan-
| eously flames began to shoot out from
the Brown building and the firemen
were obliged to divide 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 a
short time Sucking, Currie, Brown and
Dingman & Moneypenny's were all a
mass of flames and the streams of wa
ter thrown into the them had. no ap-
parent effect.
The Gale Manufacturing company s
immense plant was next to fall prey to
the fire and shortly afterwards the
flames from the east side of Dingman
| & Moneypenny'S were carried across
to the east side of Bay street to the
Office Speciality building. 1t was here
that the flremen united forces and
made a desperate stand to check the
progress of the flames northward into
the heart of the city They won, but
flames which were now sweeping down
Bay street to the river front.
Evening Telegram in Track.
The office of the Evening Telegram,
the next building north of the Office
Speciality building, was slightly dam
aged in two hours fight with the rag
ing flames. In the meantime the inn
mense- warehouse of the W. r. Brock
company on the southwest corner OF
Bay and Wellington streets was being
subjected to the intense heat from the
burning Brown building on the east
and the Dingman & Moneypenny
building opposite. with scarcely a
stream of water playing upon them
The wooden water tank on the roof
caught fire, but in some strange man
ner the building itself escaped de-
struction for the time being.
The fire cut its way through the
rear Of Brown Brothers building
which faces On Front street the firsf
street south of Wellington. In briei
space of time Front street on bOth
| sides was like a roaring furnace. Fol
, over half an hour the fire in FROM
street burned fiercely, practically un-
checked. 1t then began to work itseli
| back upon Bay street, Gordon, Mac
kay & Co.'S, warehouse serving as
fuel A few minutes before midnight
the Canada Rubber cOmpany's plan
started to burn. While it lasted thi:
furnished the hottest and fiercest con
: flagration of the night. The flames
shooting hundreds of feet into the all
and scattering great masses of spark:
and cinderS on every side, continued
/; ! north on Bay street until a complete
circle of fire had formed around this
/ Brock building on the southwest cor.
ner of Bay and Wellington streets
over which the flames had hurled II
their fierce dash south. The BrocI
building was soon in ashes
Park Saved Hotel
1t was only the intervening parl
that saved the Queens hotel. one OF
the finest hostelries in the city. 81
imminent seemed the danger that al
the guests hurriedly left and every.
thing portable was removed from the
hotel. The flames leaped across Bal