The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-19

cisco wires. We have lost operators at
Montgomery and Market streets. main
office and at Ferry terminal. Main office
says occupants of building have been or
dered to leave. About TO he dynamited to
etop progress of flames. All ferries have
been stopped, and no one is allowed to enter
or leave the CITY or move about. City under
martial law. The situation grows more
serious every minute
DYNAMITE GIVES OUT.
The Western Union received the following
at 7 O'Clock:
THE telephone building has gone and the
service is hopelessly wrecked. 1t will be at
least a month before this service can be re-
paired and at for use.
-All the newspaper Offices are gone. They
were situated in a group along Market
street The fire has extended to the Mer-
chants Exchange and is spreading. The
supply of dynamite is reported to have given
out, and the checking Of flames by means
Of blowing up buildings is now out OF the
question.
The Western Union has now recovered
it's wires. An Office has been established at
the ferry, from which a cable five miles long
extends across the bay. The company ID
now in a position TO send messages as usual,
but the town is under martial law and folks
eager to send dispatches are not permitted
TO travel through the wrecked zone and thus
reach the telegraph office
o OPERATOR ON WATERFRONT.
At $50 o'clock the Western Unions oper-
ator in the Market street ferryhouse wired
the main office here that he was practically
the only mar on the waterfront except the
soldiers. He said that no one could esti-
mate the loss Of life, but that the bulletins
put the number at 500.
The fire, which continued to burn fercely I
was not anything like under control, but at
that hour the hremen were getting plenty
OF water to fight it. The operator said
that the whole own seemed to be ablaze,
especially south Of Market street.
Before this message was received Assist
ant General Manag ger Barclay announced
that they had plenty Of wires into the tenn
porary office at the %ferryhouse. but that
no messages were being filed. apparently
on account Of the rigid manner in which
martial law was being enforced. Col. Clowry
sent a message to Gen. Funston asking him
TO allow the messengers and other m
ployees Of the company to move about
ITpelv IN OT0eT 10 ldClllIduS lIlt ItCtplIOn
and delivery Of messages.
AT 0 o'clock the operator reported that
he had not been able to find any one who
was willing to undertake the delivery Of
the telegram.
A message received at the Western Union
office at II o'clock from Oakland said that
the fire was still burning fiercelv and that
about 10000 persons had been made home
less. The number OF dead was estimated
at from 500 to 100. Oakland itself did not
suffer very extensively from the shock
but the walls OF few buildings we're thrown
down.
Assistant General Manager Barclay had
quite a long telegraphic conversation with
the operator in the ferry building at 1890
o'clock this morning. The operator said:
The situation is very bad On all sides
there is fire. At least twenty blocks along
the waterfront are in flames and the fire is
spreading. The Post Office and the Mint
nave been destroyed. The Palace Hotel is
gone and the Grand Hotel has been dyna-
mited. All Of the ships in the harbor made
for the open before the fire spread to the
piers"
At 1 o'clock this morning the Western
Union Office here was in communication
with their operator at Berkeley. He said
that the town had received a serious shock,
but that no buildings had collapsed COM
pletely. The University Of California suf-
fered the loss Of several chimneys and
coping stones.
At the same hour the operator in the ferry
tower at San Francisco wired that every
newspaper building in the town had been
destroyed. The Chronicle building, which
was thought to be safe, had been destroyed
by fire.