Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1912-02-21
S6,0O0,OO0 FIRE
SWEEPS HOUSTON
The Eastern Portion of Fair
Texas City Is Laid Low
In Ashes
BITTER COLD GALE BLOWING
Thousands of Persons Home.
less and Many Factories
Destroyed.

(By Special Leased Wire to New Mexican)
Houston, Tex, Feb. 21.-Impelled
by gale that swept in with one Of
the coolest northers Of the winter,
flames sweep through the east sec
Itjon Of Houston early today, wiped
out twenty-five blocks and caused
less estimated at $6,000,000.
Thousands Homeless.
Scores of cottages We're destroyed,
as well as many big manufacturing
plants, and thousands of persons We're
made homeless. The number of homes
and stores burned is more than 25O
100000 Cotton and Lumber Burned.
! The greater part of the loss is con-
! fined to The lumber and cotton indus
tries. Forty-five thousand bales Of
cotton stored in warehouses and
congresses We're burned. This item
aicne represents a loss of $2,000.0o0.
! The fire started in a cottage near
! the Southern Pacific railroad tracks
| soon after midnight. It's origin has
| not been established definitely. A
heavy wind picked up the flames and
hurled them to neighboring cottages
and boarding houses. In a flash they
! ignited. The forty mile wind carried
sparks many blocks away and within
half an hour a great area of small
| IrCsidences was burning.
| Firemen Abandon Work.
The fire spread to nearby manufac-
turing plants so rapidly that firemen
abandoned attempts to check the
| flames and instead devoted their ener-
gies to warning householders. Posi-
Bile loss of life thus was averted.
At the manufacturing plants and
cotton congresses firemen and vol
unteers had organized to fight the
| flames. Walls and roofs were water
soaked, This water was evapOrated
quickly by the advance guard of
| sparks, and when the flames reached
the factories, they succumbed as eas-
| IL as the rows of cottages.
Buffalo Bayou Checks Flames.
An hour after the flames began
| their destruction firemen organized for
| final stand at Buffalo Bayou, a small
stream that divides the eastern part
OF the city from the main section and
ievery piece os FIRE fighting apparatus
was stationed along the banks. If the
| fire leaped the Bayou, it meant the
| destruction of the city
Flames Leaped Across.
! As the advancing flames began to
reach the bayou BANKS, thousands Of
| streams of water were hurled into
them checking. little by little, their
progress. At some of the narrower
! portions of the stream the flames leap
ed across, but the more substantial
| buildings did not afford the tinder-like
| fuel heretofore encountered. and the
spread of the fire was prevented
Many Persons Hurt.
| Thousands of persons We're driven
from their homes In the cold of the
norther they suffered severely from
exposure. Relief work was at once
! set under way, however, and food
ard clothing provided, Many persons
were hurt during the fire, but so far
| as can be determined, there were no
! casualties.
| The burned area is at least a mile
ard a half long and at points, a quar-
| ter of a mile wide. 1t embraces the
ashes Of long rows of cottages and
solid streets of manufacturing plants.
| It was swept clean.
| One of the first of the more preten-
tious buildings attacked was the
Brick Star and Crescent hotel. In
mates had been warned and all escap-
/ Ell without injury. The flames roar
gave warning and hundreds of per-
sons giving no heed to the cold, dash
ed from their homes clad only in their
night clothes. Women, carrying
babies: women at whose skirts small
children clung, gathered in homes of
neghbors for refuge, only to be
driven out few minutes later by the
on-coming fire.
| Firemen appointed leaders among
the men of the fame-swept district.
and they, marshalling the refugees,
; led them out of danger Homes quick
, " were provided in other residence
sections of the city. Clothing and
| food were furnished by relief COM
mittee and there was comparatively
| little suffering.
Among the mills, factories and
plants either totally destroyed or seri-
ously damaged by the fire, are the
| McFadden Southern Compress and
! Warehouse Company, Dew Brothers
Syrup mill, Houston e Liggett Lum-
Der Co., Rogers Paint Company; Hud-
sons Pencil Factory, Houston Pack
| iI.g Company, slightly damaged; Ed.
/ H. Harrell lumber yards, Standard
| Compress, the Cooperative Manufac-
turing Company Acme Mill, st. Pat
ncks Roman Catholic church and a
school operated in conjunction with
tie church, Cleveland Compress and
Cotton Warehouse, McTlhenney Cot
ton Pickery, Texas Timers Supply
Company, Industrial Rice Milling
lCompany's plant, Southwestern Rice
Company mill, Hoosier Vinegar Com
panys plant and number of lesser
mills. Besides these, 1000 bales of
cotton were destroyed with the Stand
ard Compress, Sc Southern Pacific
cars loaded with cotton bales were
burned. At late hour the loss was