Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-04-14
"cHELsEA APPEALS"

I've have been visited by most terri
| BILE catastrophe. One-half the area of
our city has been swept by fire. Fifteen
thousand people are homeless Twelve
million dollars worth of property has
teen destroyed
"Our business section is almost wholly
| wiped out. We are in sore need. We
have not lost our courage but are apply
| ing ourselves with all our ability to the
task before Us.
But that task is stupendous and we
ask assistance of all who are benevolent
ly inclined. He who gives quickly gives
double Subscriptions may be sent to City
Treasurer Thomas 3. Frost.
(Signed,
JOHN f. BECK,
Mayor of Chelsea.
"WILLIAM S. McCEINTOCK,
"Charman Of Relief Committee"
None of the three bodies of the fire
victims which were brought to the Boston
City nlorgue had been identified today,
nor mad anyone called at the morgue to
view the bodies.
Careful inquiry among the police,
military, health and fire authorities to-
day failed to disclose that more than
three persons lost their lives in the fire.
1t is possible, however, that when the
ruins have cooled sufficiently for a
thorough examination, more bodies
may be discovered
At the hospitals today there were
only two patients whose condition
We're critical as a result of the fire.
One of these patients was man who
had been burned severely while an
other was critically i'll with pneumonia,
his condition on having been aggrc-
waited by his removal from lis home
to the hospital
So quickly and so well did the relief
committee perform their work during
the night that this afternoon there
seemed to be scarcely anyone III des-
titute condition in or about the burned
district. There was very little Sleep
ing on the street during the night Only
few temporary camps We're estab-
!iShed. in laCJ. TEiS forenoon the entire
district was given up to the insurance
adJusters, business men, state and city
officials and the militia The police sta
.tion of course was crowded but there
the work had been well systematized
and through police efforts many fami.
lies We're united before the day was
over. The weather conditions during
the forenoon were rather discouraging,
light snow and rain falling for a num-
Der of hours. At noon, however, the
sun burst out and it became warm and
spfinglke.
The insurance adjusters We're early
on the scene. Their first work was to
ascertain whether there was any
chance for salvage but one glance over
the district was sufficient to show how
completely the flames had done their
work There We're some walls standing
but the interior of practically every
building OF any size or Importance had
been swept absolutely clean. Nearly
all of the buildings on Broadway, in
Guiding the great bank buildings near
Chelsea square were Frustrated but by
noon nearly all the ruins had cooled
sufficiently so that the safe doors could
be reached. No attempt, however. was
made TO open any Of the vaults, as tie
great steel hinges We're still very hot
A dozen of the fire engines from this
and neighboring cities were still at
work on the ruins where small fires
We're smouldering. At the oil works at
the extreme end of the district num-
Der of tanks were burning themselves
out and in a few places on Broadway
broken timbers and other wooden ma
tcrial were still blazing fiercely at noon.
1t was possible however, to walk
through all the streets of the burned
district at 10 a. M. today and in most
of them automobiles passed along
without difficulty. This was due to the
fact that few buildings in Chelsea had
been more than so to IS feet in height
while the wooden structures which
constituted a greater number Of the
buildings destroyed We're almost who'll