The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-09
The D. |. & WIS Termi-
nal is Destroyed.
TWO BOATS BURNED
For Halt an Hour the Flames Threat
ened all the Water Front. Loss
Of Property in the Vicinity is
Estimated at Half a
Million.
CBv the Associated Press

New York, Aug. I.-lnSlde OF Inree
quarters of an hour late tonight, fire
swept away the Delaware, Lackawan-
ma and Western Railroad Company's
terminal in Hoboken, seized two ferry
boats and practically ruined them, and
for half an hour threatened the rest
of the water front in the vicinity, m
Guiding the neutrality-suspicious. and
North German Lloyd steamship docks
at which several big ships were lying.
The loss to property is estimated at
between 100000 and 100000. so
far as known no lives were lost.
For over an hour huge tongues OF
flames leaped from the wooden struc-
lures on the LackaWanna docks, light
ing the New Jersey and New York
water fronts For a time it threaten :
ed a loss greater than that of the big
dock fire of several years ago, when
the North German Lloyd piers were
destroyed with a great loss of life.
Blazing ferry boats. cut from their
docks. fioated in the river, wandering
fire ships, which for time endanger-
ed shipping.
The fire started on an old wooden
ferry boat and swept by northerly
breeze communicated with the ferry
house spread to the main building or
the Lackawanna and then TO the
Dukes house, a famous Hoboken
hosiery. The hotel was a frame
structure and was a ready prey for
the flames.
BY this time the flames were spread
ing in all directions, utterly beyond
the control of the few first fire fighters
who had responded to the first alarm.
Fire Under Control.
Following the hotel the structure
of the public service corporation
the street car operating company OF
Hoboken Jersey City and nearby
places-went down before the flames.
At one O'Clock this morning the fire
was under control and the big steam
ship piers had been saved.
A remarkable feature of the great
blaze was that inside of twenty min
utes after its start it had seized upon
the Lackawanna terminal and swept
it's six hundred feet of train sheds,
booming them.
The flames started from an I'M
known cause on the old wooden ferry
boat Hopatcong, which had been tied
up in the open slip. between the Ham
burg docks and the Christopher Street
ferry slips The fire was discovered
about II o'clock. 1t was then leaping
from the boiler room below the main
deck through the engine room and
attacking the wooden superstructure.
"A Waterman on the ferry dock turn
ed in calls for the city department.
and also for the LackaWanna fire
brigade. Almost before the COM
panys men could lay a line of hose
and before the city firemen could
reach the scene, the flames had leap
ed to the ferry loffice building between
the piers and then to the brand new
ferry boat BinghamptOn. which was
lying in the northern slip OF the Bar
clay street line. From these 1t leap
in a few seconds to the high frame
.tructure above the waiting rooms and
in five minutes after the fire was
seen the entire buildings, covering
many acres were burning. Twenty
minutes after the blaze was first seen
the high tower, which surmounts the
building, crashed down all ablaze.
Twenty minutes after the alarm it
looked as if the entire lower part
of Hobokcn, including the Hamburg
piers, would go.
Eour Slips Burn.
There were four slips with high
pilings and these burned fiercely and
sent the fire southwark into the freight
piers. These had also destroyed for
the most part by great fire on May
30 1904 and had just been rebuilt
leaped into the train shed and so rapid
was the spread there that engines,
which were drawing out the cars there
to be ready for use in the morning,
had to be hurried out. Seven coaches
were left behind. but there had l'een
time enough to save about thirty
others.
Fire engines were quickly summon
ed from Jersey City and New York,
the former city sending all available
engines and the latter dispatched two
fire boats. With this extra force
the 1oboken firemen were able to pre-
vent the fire from spreading through
lower Hoboken. while the fire boats
held the flames in check along the
water front. To the southwark the
flames caught the new emigrant sta
ton. II cost $70.000 to build and
was supposed to be fire proof but
was soon a mass of fire, the interior
burning rapidly. Only a few persons
were in it at the time of the out
break and they were hurried out,
George Robinson. Hoboken fire.
man. had one of his hands caught be-
meath a falling blazing timber and so
badly crushed that he was taken to a
hospital. This is the only accident
reported.
Thousands of persons saw the fire
from the docks and buildings of Man
haitian. The crowds became so great
that it was necessary to turn out the
police reserves. An alarm was turn
ed in Manhattan and Chief Croker
ordered the fire boats New Yorker and
Mcclellan to the scene.