Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-12-29
MANY HOMELESS
 BY B|sBEE FIRE
Chihuahua Hill Again Visited and Hundred Mexicans
 Without Homes.

II On hundred rendered homeless. sev.
 eral thousand dollars worth of property destroyed and threatened second l disastrous confiagration, were the re.
 suits of n fire on Chihuahua Hill. But for the prompt and efficient work of
 the fire department and the fact that
 the day was not n windy one, there is
 no doubt that the whole Mexican set
 clement would have been wiped out of
 existence, says the Review.
 The fire originated in the house of
 F. Parker, a negro porter at the F. P.
 $. w., in one of the rear rooms. How | it started is not known. There was
 neither stove nor lamp in the room | The first the occupants knew of the | fire was when someone told them that | their house was burning. All the con. tents of this, the first house to burn,
 were lost. The house belonged to w.
 D. Kinsey. Three or four of the other
 houses which burned were owned by
 Loredo and another by Starr Williams.
 fire alarm was turned in and the
 firemen, many of whom were eating their Christmas dinner, quickly respond ed. It was long climb up to the top of the hill and by the time the lines of hose had been stretched and the stream playing on the fire. it had spread to three or four other houses. Within thirty minutes, however, the blaze was under complete control and the danger past.
 In all six houses were destroyed all of them inhabited by Mexicans. It is estimated that loo people were rendered homeless and property loss of about $l5,000 entailed. A great many of the personal belongings of the occupants of the houses were saved, but the fur. niture was nearly all lost.
 Owing to the location of the fire, practically the entire town turned out. half expecting that there would be a repetition of the disastrous blaz of last June. The streets were impossible on account of the crowds, while the hills and the smaller buildings of the city were filled with people watching the fire, which could be seen from all DOT. tions of the city.
 The confusion that prevailed among the Mexican population is indescriba. ble. With the memory of the wreck of the former homes fresh in their minds, | they felt certain that the rapid spread | of the fire would mean nothing but | that their households were to be swept I away. Men, women and children | streamed down the sides of the hill | laden with everything that could be | carried from their threatened homes | Children, scared by the uproar. filled | the air with their cries. The narrow | trails leading down the hill were block. | ed with people and luggage of every | description. Those coming down the | hill met those who were hurrying to their homes, each unwilling to get out | of the way of the other. In ten min. utes after the alarm was sounded every house within hundred yards had been stripped of everything that could be carried out.
 had been lost in the fire, among them a number of children. A thorough search was made in all of the ruins by the tiremen with the result that no traces of dead bodies were found. There is but little doubt that the children stray ed away in tfle confusion.
 The firemen quit about 7:30, the blaze being entirely out by that time. They say that the pressure was all that could be asked, the pumps au the Czar having been started as soon as the alarm was sounded. The water in the tanks was not lowered an inch. Ow- ing to there being but one end of the hose used that could fix on the fire plug, the laying of one of the lines ,f hose was delayed as the wrong, end was taken to the top of the hill and the ends had to be reversed
 The difficulties under which the fire was fought can be appreciated only by hose who were doing it and the fire men deserve the highest praise for the manner in which they checked what ooked like q blaze that would spread to all parts of the hill. and possibly -O the hnSinpss narfs nf the cifN