The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-13

on leave. These sailors were not sent .
under command of any officer, but were .
instructed to give their services wherever /
needed.
Held Back With Bayonets.
Marines with fixed bayonets held back
the crowds. while the militia and sailors /
helped families remove their goods. Ad- 4
vance squads of the military and police /
were sent ahead warning out families
living in the path of the fire, when /
leaped block after block with astonishing /
Tapidity.
The crowds generally were easily ham
died. Occasionally some excited man
would burst through the Gordon OF mlhtia
and marines TO dash into house for
some forgotten yaluabes, but the pres
ence of so many uniformed guards over
awed the rougher element.
The fire started on the marshes Oor0er-
ing the eastern division tracks OF the Bos-
ton & Maine railroad, in the rear of the
Boston Backing companys works, Where
/ employees were at work drying out rags.
/ The company's works are situated at the
end of West Third street, half mile
north of the heart of the city. series
| of long, low wooden buildings comprised
the works, stored for the most part with
/ old rags and paper.
Spontaneous Combustion.
! The exact cause of the fire is not
/ known, but il is supposed that spontane-
GUS combustion among the rags was re-
I SpOnSible.
I A high wind, blowing at forty-five miles
/ an hour. from the northwest, drove the
I flames from the rag heaps directly upon
the wooden buildings of the Boston
Backing company. The buildings were
soon d mass Of flames and as the sur
rounding property consisted largely OF
wooden buildings used for the storage of
rags. the fire department realized that
serious fire was threatened and a general
alarm was sounded. In the gale, shingles,
burning paper and Oi-soaked rags were
hiph int and
ing over the city
Within half an hour the Rosenfelt
Bros three-story wooden rag factory on
Maple street was in flames, was the
Chaplis & SOden car works. Tons or
tarred paper were stored in the latter fac
tory and clouds of smoke rendered the
firemen's work extremely difficult. Soon
a dozen factories and cheaper tenements,
west of Everett avenue, were in flames,
and the firemen saw they were utterly
unable to cope with the conflagration.
Aid From Other Cities.
, Realizing that the city was apparently
I doomed if the flames could not be stopped
l at Everett avenue, Fire Chief II. A.
Spencer summoned help from Boston and
all the surrounding cities and towns. -Four
alarms were running in on the Boston
circuit and all the available apparatus
$ was sent across the harbor- Early In the
D afternoon aid had arrived from Everett
Lynn, Haverhill, Wakefield, Salem, NAL
e den. Cambridge, winthrop and Revere
The first evidence of the fire on the east
side of Everett Pvenue was when the root
of the Peoples M f. church on Fourth
+ street was seen to be ablaze. Services
t were in progress inside at the time. ano
:, the congregation was unaware that a
D serious cOnflagratiOn was raging outside
+ Someone notified the pastor, Rev. Charles
8 p Watson. He Immediately turned L
Y his people, told them of the danger and
e ! advised them TO retire slowly from the
t building. Twenty minutes later there wa:
loo of
Barely Saved Their Lives.
s. Heaps of burning embers and suffo
!. eating cloud of dust hurled down across
e Everett avenue by the gale, coupled will
Z the intense heat. drove the fiTemen from
s their posts, and those families neares
II the start of the cOnflagratiOn had only
time to rush from their homes and saw
- their lives losing all their possessions
,. Forced down Everett avenue to tn
II south the firemen battled with the flame
? in an endeavor to save part of the bust
ness section and to conflne the fire Il
J. that part of the city between the railroad
2. tracks and Everett avenue. Within al
1t area of half square were severa
churches and school houses. One by on
= they fell before the flames.
Churches AbIaze.
49, When the Polish Catholic church caugh
n fire the Rev Father George S. Jaskolsk
II had Just closed a service and many pee
'. pie were in and about the edifice. In fiji
r teen minutes the entire top of the churc
is was I'm flames. All the movable effect
DIT and furniture were removed. The loss o
the Polish church is estimated at SIS
- A hundred yards away, at the corne
-e of Chestnut and Fourth streets, the Firs
1t UniVersalst church caught fire and wa
n soon enVeIOped in flames. Rev. r. PER-
he Bush the pastor. declared that the los
IN would be fully $4,000. A spectacular fes
ture of the burning of the UNIVERSAL:
- church was the picture of the flames a
ne they burned completely around the bias
n of the great golden cross which tippe
y the spre. For a few moments it stoo
out against the sky. a flaming golde
- beacon, and then with a crash tumble
IL headlong into the roof breaking as
IS struck the roof, one part going into IL
rs interior OF the edifice and the other stTil
nd ing the street.
"a a Flames Jumped the Street.
be Up to this time the fire had been col
he fined TO the west of Everett avenue. Tit
it could be stopped there was beyond :