Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-13
MILLIONS LOST
IN CHELSEA FIRE
FLAMES SWEEP TENEMENT
DISTRICT
SCORES INJURED; PUBLIC BUILD
INGS DESTROYED
Wind Blowing Sixty Miles an Hour
Carries Blaze Over Square Mile
of Thickly Populated
Chelsea
,ooptinued from Page one)


of militia and marines to dash into a
house for some forgotten yaluaples, pus
the nresence of so many unl1orinso
guards oVerawed the rougher elellieIil' =
THE fire started on the marshes Dor.
dering the eastern division tracks ol
the Boston G. Maine railroad III tlic
rear of the Boston Blacking company 5
works where employees were at work
driving ont rags. The works are SIT
mated at the end of west Third street,
half a mile north Of the heart of the
city A series of long, low wooden
buildings comprised the works. stored
for the most part with old rags ana
paper. -
known. but 1t is supposed that spon-
faneous combustion among the rags
was responsible.
A high wind blowing at forty-hVe
miles an hour from the northwest
drove the flames from the rag heaps
directly upon the wooden building OF
the Boston Blacking company. The
huildinRs were soon a mass of flames'
and. as the surrounding property con-
sisted largely of wooden buildings used
for the storage of rags. the fire depart
ment realized that serious fire was
threatened and a general alarm was
sounded.
In the gale shingles, burning paper
and oil-soaked rags we're flung high
into the air and went soaring over the
Factory Goes
within half an hour the Rosenfelt
brothers. three-story wooden rag fac
tory on Maple street was in fiames' as
was the Chaplis & Soden car works
Tons of tarred paper were stored In
the latter factory. and clouds of smoke
rendered the firemen's work extremely
difficult.
soon a dozen factories and cheap ten
ements west of Everett avenue We're IN
flames, and the firemen say they were
utterly unable to cope with the con-
fagration.
Realizing that the city was appar-
emily doomed if the flames could not be
stopped at Everett avenue, Fire CHER
n. A. Spencer summoned help from
Roston and all the surrounding cities
and towns. Four alarms were rung IN
on the Boston circuit, and all the
available apparatus was sent across
the harbor.
rived from Linn, Hayerhill, Wakefield
Salem, Maiden, Cambridge, winthrop
and Revere.
The first evidence of the fire on the
east side of Everett avenue was When
the roof Of the Peoples Methodist Epls-
copal church on Fourth street was seen
L
nrogress at the time, and the congre-
CATION was unaware that serious tlre
was raging outside. Some one notihed
the pastor He Immediately turned 10
his people, told them Of the danger
and advised them to file slowly from
the building Twenty minutes later
there was not vestfge of the eolnce
left. 80
Heaps of burning embers and suf-
locating cloud of dust hurled down
across Everett avenue by the gale,
coupled with the intense heat, drove
the firemen from their posts, ana those
families nearest the start Of the con-
flagration had only time to rush from
their houses and save their lives, los
ing all of their personal possessions.
Battle with Flames
Far down Everett avenue the fire.
men battled with the flames iii an en-
deayor 10 save a part of the business
section and to confine the fire TO that
mart Of the city between the railroad
tracks and Everett avenue. Within an
area of half of square were several
churches and schools. One by one, they
fell before the flames.
When the Polish Catholic church
caught fire the pastor had just closed
services and many people were in ana
a&lut the edifice In fifteen minutes
the entire top of the church was III
flames. All of the movable effects of
furniture were removed. The loss on
the Polish church is estimated at
$75.000
of Chestnut and Fourth streets, the
First Universalist church caught IRE
and was soon enveloped in flames. Inc
pastor declared that the loss would De
fully $S0000.
A spectacular feature of the burning
Is..A III.
t1lre of the flames as they burned COM
pletely around the base of the great
golden cross which tipped the spire'
Fire Spreads
Tn To this time the fire had been
ronfned to the west of Everett ave-
nue. That it could be stopped there
was beyond all question an impossi-
bilitv. however, for already embers had
started fires all the way from Everett
avenue across Broadway leaping the
business street of the city, and Great
ing new sources Of danger In the poorer
tenement residential portions OF the
CITY between Broadway and the water
front,
Spreading to tho northeast from Ev-
erett avenue the fire seized upon rows
of business blocks facing Broadway
and envcloped them one after another,
creeping slowly but steadily toward
&hdSe square, lNe t'liitl VI AHt WY
The Titz public library. masnif-
cent structure, was destroyed, and the
flames crept toward tho Ford hospital.
BY requisitioning the ambulances
from surrounding towns and cities and
railing into service all available car
riages, the police were able to speedily
remove the inmates of the Ford hos
pital and the cbidren's hospital outside
the city limits, TO retreats OF safety. 1t
was none too soon, for both hospitals
were shortly consumed,
The fire at the Fitz library marked
the limit of the burned area on Broad
way to the east.
Masonic Temple Burns
On Broadway the Masonic temple and
Odd Fellows buildings We're burned, as
were twelve blocks, mostly of brick
construction. The fire swept down
Broadway west to within a block of
Chelsea square, where it seemed to be
held in check late in the afternoon.
In the meantime between Broadway
and the water front the southern Sec
tion Of the city was in flames. No
one knew where the fire would spring
up next.
All of the firemen were in the center
Of the city and half mile square of
Do NOT F.
- RAI HA