The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-09
VERY VALUABLE BUSINESS
 PROPERTY A MASS OF RUINS
No Loss of Life and No Injuries
 Reported.
Water Pressure Was Poor. Which Greatly Handicapped the Fire men, and strong Wind
 Planned the Flames, scat-
 terfns Burning Embers.

Atlanta. Ga. May s.-Thirty-one buildings destroyed, forty-two business concerns burned out. 1000 persons thrown out of employment. and a finan- cial loss conservatively estimated at sl,250 000. is the result of fire about 3:30 o'clock this morning. which ragged for four hours in the business district. of this city.
 Tonight the lire is under control. with ruined buildings :. in the district bounded by Forsyth. Nelson. Madison and Hunter Streets. Late today: the police and fire department dynamited what was left of the ragged walls. To- night half Atlanta's fire fighting force is playing water into a dozen razed structures.
 How the ire started is q mystery. It was discovered in. the building oc- cupied by the Schlessinger-M Meyer Com- pany Bakery. From there it ran It's way fin all directions until it struck the Terminal Hotel. one of the largest in the city, and gutted thsG During the early morning hours, every one In the Terminal Hotel and in numerous other smaller hotels in the district had. warning. There was no loss of
 
 The insurance on the property de- stroyed is placed by insurance men at. $750,0 900.
 One of the heaviest losers is s.. M. Inman, of Atlanta, who owned the en. tire block bounded by Forsyth. Mitch ell and Nelson Streets and Madison Avenue, and in which were located the SehIessfnger-Meyer Company. Branch ''B' of the city postofice. the Liquid Carbcnic Comma "a branch of the Central Trust and Banking com- pspy and many smaller concerns. ,a stars In BAkery. sff The fire was discovered in the ele- vatorN shaft of the EeiiieSsinger-N Meyer Building ana is supposed to have originated from crossed wires running to the motor which operated the eIe- vator. By the time the firemen had arrived the flames had broken through the roof of this building and owing to a light water pressure 1t was irn- possible to check their progress. Tn a short time this structure was com pletely gutted and the, fire was eating its way through to Station "B" of the Atlanta postofnce. where mails receiv- ed from the Terminal Station just across the square. are distributed. The employees of the postofice, however. by quick work managed to save all the mall and most of tab equipment jumping aCFOSS MltCnelt street, the flames made short work of the Ter minal Hotel, the Terminal Annex, .ChiIds's Cafe and Hotel and Chfld's Annex. at which point the iremen suc- ceeded in checking the onslaught on the north side of Mitchell Street. On the south side. however. the flames continued to sweep everything in their path until Forsyth Street was reached, gutting the buildings occupied by Me- Clure's Ten Cents Store. the branch bank of the Central Banking and Trust Company. The Paragon Suspender Com pany Moon Shoe Store and the Liquid Carbonic Company.
 The Schlessinger Meyer building ex- tended half a block on Nelson Street and the flames soon jumped to nu- merous storehouses on Forsyth Street. destroying the places occupied by AL verson Brothers Grocery Company, the Binders Frame Manufacturing Com pany and the Walker Cooley Furniture Company
 Strong Wind Blowing.
 A strong west wind famed the flames and scattered burning embers over the whole business section of the city and threatening for a time to cause even greater loss.
 The fremen had many narrow es- capes from falling walls but no in- juries of serious nature are report ed.
 The guests from the hotels and rooming houses in the Dursed section succeeded in saving most of their ef- feets having been warned in time to remove their trunks, which were piled on the plaza in front of the Termipal Station. from which point thelr own- CTS and many early risers1 watched the progress of the flames.
 When the fire companies arrived the building was a mass of flames. Chief Cummings immediately turned in a general alarm. Flames were shooting from every window of the big building that ran the entire block from Nell son Street to Mitchell Street on Mad ison and were leaping high in the air from the middle of the building. The water pressure was poor. and try as they could, the firemen could not get a stream that would carly above the second floor.
 Half an hour after the ire started threatening walls made 1t necessary to remove engines on the Mitchell Street side of the SchlessInger building and fifty hremen with streams of wa ter playing upon them, dragged the machine to a place cf safety.
 Meanwhile high power trolley cleo tric light wires were falling every where, parts of walls were dropping out and with the high wind prevailing the flames were shot across the street to the Terminal Hotel, which acted as sort of a fiuke for the fire. Floor after floor of the Terminal Hotel was soon ablaze.
 The hremen were fought hack ur til thev were in the rear of tho Terminal Hotel where lack of water again re- tarded any effort to check the fii e. Within half an hour the walls and roOi of the hotel had fallen in
 Two Terrific Explosions.
 Spreading from Madison Street on a In the Liquid Carbonic Company struc- ture, a five story building tS the east and within a short space of time tn, re were two terrific explosions wE'ch seemed to carry all remaining vtils and the roof of this building to the basemNnt
 Next to the carbonie Company'l