The Penn's Grove record., 1904-02-12

ty-four hours between IL o'clock Sum
day morning and IL o'clock Monday
morning as if they had been figures on
a slate and a wet sponge had been
passed over them.
Busy Baltimore street is a wilderness
of twisted iron beams, tangled trolley
and telegraph wires, calcined brick,
crushed glass, bent and battered sheet
iron and other wreckage.
The side streets from the corner of
Sharpe and Liberty to Baltimore to the
harbor are in similar case.
The flames were so fierce, the heat SO
intense, that supposedly fireproof struc-
lures like the Continental Trust Build
ing, the Equitable and the Calvert
buildings were ruined in fifteen min
utes. In some instances buildings
seemed to melt as If they were made
Of ice. The flames burst in the win
dows. In an instant the buildings
were destroyed.
The ordinary brick buildings did not
last three minutes each on an average.
Every available engine from New
York, Washington, Philadelphia, Will
mington and from places as far away
as Altoona and Harrisburg reinforced
the Baltimore department and played
water on the flames. The streams had
no effect. The water was turned to
steam before it reached the fire.
The flames leaped across the narrow
streets. A strong wind was blowing.
At times it reached forty miles an
hour. The sparks flew in all directions
and for many squares. The sight after
nightfall was tremendous. The flames
were 200 feet high.
According to the list Of losses it is
expected that few insurance companies
will be forced into bankruptcy. That
danger will be confined to some Balti-
more Companies and to a few unim-
portant outside companies.
The city was placed under martial
law, Major-General Corbin having been
called from New York to take charge
of the militia and the Federal troops
ordered here by the Governor and the
President to aid in checking the flames
and to prevent the pillaging of build
ings unchanged by fire.
Dynamite was used unsparingly on
great and valuable buildings and the
blowing up of these, aided by the nat
ural limit Of the fire, because of contact
with non-infiammable structures, ma
terially checked the spread of the con-
1agration.
Strenuous efforts were made by per-
sons having offices in the burned
buildings to remove valuables before
the fire reached them. Much property
was removed to places of safety, but
safes containing thousands of dollars
oV0t in tho r.,rsnc LNxvnwu NJ, f1
the city save the World and the Sun
was burned out. The Sun was dyna-
mited, and the Baltimore World was
the only newspaper issued in the city
on the day following the fire. The Sun
was printed in Washington and
reached the city with full accounts Of
the fire. Other papers were also issued
there through the courtesy of the Post,
the Star and the Times.
The fire started in the wholesale dry
goods and notion house of John E.
Hurst & Co., at the corner of Liberty
and German streets. 1t is not definite
ly known what caused the blaze. Some
say it was spontaneous combustion,
but whatever it was it is certain that
the rapid spread of the flames was due
to the explosion of a gasoline tank in
the cellar of the building and a high
wind.
A number Of buildings on South
Charles street, between German and
Lombard, were blown up. Subsequent
~ the splendid structure of J. w. Puts
& Co., notion dealers, at Charles and
Fayette streets, was dynamited, and
then the Daily Record building, Ross's
drug store and others.
But this heroic remedy merely de-
layed, but did not seriously impede the
onward march of the con1agration, and
for two hours or more the Fire Depart
ment has stood practically helpless and
resourceless in the face of the roaring
furnaces, which sent their fierce
tongues 200 feet into the air, and which
filled the heavens first with a pail of
black funereal smoke, and then with
livid sheets of sparks and lurid cinders.
A man connected with the fire insur-
ance companies said that the area in
which the fire started was marked on
the insurance map as the Black Belt.
The burned district is within the ter
ritory bounded on the west by Liberty
street, on the north by Lexington
street, on the east by Jones Falls and
on the south by the basin. Within this
district were the big structures on Fay
cite, Gay, Lombard, Charles, Balder-
son, Ellicott, Hollingsworth and Cheap
side streets. Passing southeast, along
the basin, the following large docks
were destroyed: McClure's, Patter-
sons, Smiths, Frederick, Long and
Union. Small thoroughfares, which do
not extend as far north as Lexington
street, and which were in the path of
the flames, are Commerce, Fredericks
and Mill streets.
Among the heavy losers are: Oehms.
Company, 100000; Armstrong, Gator
& Co., notions and millinery, 100000;
Wiegart & Co., shoes; Stelger Brothers,
trunks; Dowell, Helm & Co., storage,
and M. & ]. O%ppenheimer & Sons, jew
elry, $1,000 H. S. Hecht s. Co., mill
linery, 100000; Blankenberg, Gehr-
mann & Co., notions, $125,0OO; Leo
Keene & Co., ladies' cloaks, and Henry
Pretzfelder & Co., boots and shoes,
$125 600; Peter Rose & Son, harness
manufacturers, $125, 900; James Rob-
ertson Manufacturing Company, plumb.
ing supplies, 100000; r. Jandorff &
Co., boots and shoes, and James Rob-
ertson Manufacturing Company, stor-
age, $100,O0 Fondin, Hahn & Sons,
cloths, $100.000; L. Brief & Brothers,
clothing, $15O,000; Mas & Kemper,
embroidery and laces, $125, 900; Flor
ence w. MacCarthy Company, notions
and laces, $150,000; Thalheimer Broth
ers, clothing, $150,00O; Fisher Brothers.
liquors, wholesale, and Silberman &
Todes, notions and dry goods, $3.50, 600;
j. Goldsmith & Son, clothing, and Su-
gar & Shear, clothing, 100000.