Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-02-06
GREAT CHICAGO FIRE;
Loss IS 100000.
Flames Jump from Wabash to
Michigan Avenue and Do
Enormous Damage.
BIG STORES ARE DESTROYED.
Alfred Peats & Co., John A. Colby
and Edison Keith & Co. Are
the Chief Sufferers.

have afflicted the downtown district of
Chicago since 1874 occurred Tuesday
evening in the block bounded by Wa
bash and Michigan avenues and Mad
ison and Monroe streets.
Beginning at G o'clock and raging in
full fury until 8 80, it practically de-
stroyed the buildings occupied by Al
fred Peats & Co.. John A. Colby & Son.
and Edison Keith & Co, besides doing
large damage to adjacent structures in
both avenues. The loss is estimated at
81, 100000, in great part covered by in
surance. The fire was By no means eX-
tinguished at 9:30. 1t required all
night fighting to prevent it from spread
ing. At a. N. it was under control.
The Keith house and the adjoining
business houses of Gage Bros. & Co.
and Theo. Ascher Company, all of them
millinery establishments, are especially
heavy losers, because the salvage on
such stocks is considered nothing. and
they arc able on insure to less thar
half full value.
Sixty Fire Engines There.
In point of number of engines at
work and additional alarms the fire was
the largest in Chicago since the summer
of 1894. Tuesday night there were
sixty steamers engaged in pumping wa
ter for the scores of streams thrown
into the burning buildings. The fire
of 1894, which held the record until
Tuesday night, was lumber yard blaze
which swept the district about Ashland
avenue, Wood and ODD streets. Fire
largest within the loop district, in the
matter of property loss, since the fire
of 1874.
The fire throughout was spectacular
and attracted tens of thousands of per-
sons to view it. The four elevated rail-
road systems of the city were paralyZed
in their loop terminals, and the Cot
tage Grove and Indiana avenue surface
lines were blocked for five hours. The
aters in the vicinity of the fire were
almost deserted during the earlier acts
of the plays.
The fire started in the rear of the
Alfred Peats Company's building,
climbed rapidly from floor to floor, and
within few minutes after it had been
discovered the flames were on Wabash
avenue, which the building faces, while
trains crowded with people going to
their homes rushed through the roaring
furnace.
One fireman was Slightly injured, but
otherwise the record is free from cas-
ualties. in spite of the terrific sweep
of the flames and the sharp cold of the
night, made more bitter by a northwest
gale.
Fire Losses and Insurance.
The buildings which were destroyed
by the fire and the firms which occu-
pied them are as follows:
Alfred Peats Company, wall paper,
IA Wabash avenue, five floors; total
loss, $2J0,00O.
John A. Colby & Sons, furniture. 148
Wabash avenue, six floors; loss, $780,
600.
Edison Keith & Co., wholesale MILL
ners, 1924 Michigan avenue, seven
floors; loss, 100000.
Other firms which suffered losses,
principally from smoke and water, are:
Yawnian & Erbe Company, 1873 Wa
bash avenue, letter files and cabinets;
loss, $1,000.
The Frank Morris Book Shop, 152
Wabash avenue; loss, $1,000.
Gage Bros. 100 Michigan avenue,
wholesale milliners; loss, $4,000.
Theodore Asclfer Company, 135 Mich
igan avenue, wholesale milliners; loss,
$4,000.
John A. Bryant Company, pianos,
second floor, 40 Wabash avenue; loss,
$1,000
Carl Netschert, artificial flowers, 140
Wabash avenue; loss, $1,000.
Powers building. Monroe and Wabash
avenue !; loss, 81 900.
Remington Typewriter Company, first
floor, 154 Wabash avenue; loss. $1,000.
Home Club lunchroom. first floor, 154
Wabash avenue: loss, $1,000.
Except in the three structures which
were destroyed by the fire, the other
losses We're by smoke and water.