Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1912-02-21
Loss IS NEARLY SIO,OOO,OOO
BIG FACTORIES AND COTTAGES
OF THEIR EMPLOYEES GO UP
IN SMOKE.
MANY PEOPLE ARE HOMELESS
ONLY HEROIC WORK ON PART OF
FIREMEN SAVED WHOLE CITY
FROM DESTRUCTION.

| Houston, Feb. 21.-Impelled by a
gale that swept in with one of the
coldest northers of the winter, flames
swept through the eastern section of
Houston early today and wiped out
25 blocks and caused loss estimated
at between $6OOO,OOO and $4,000 900.
Scores of cottages were destroyed, as
we'll as many big manufacturing
plants and thousands of persons were
made homeless. The number of homes
and stores burned is more than $50.
The greater part of the loss is con-
fined to the lumber ana cotton in
dustries. Forty-five thousand bales of
cotton, stored in warehouses and COM
presses were burned. This item alone
represents loss of $2,O00,00O.
The fire started in cottage near
the Southern Pacific railroad tracks
soon after midnight. Its origin has
not been established definitely. A
heavy wind picked up the flames and
hurled them to neighboring cottages
and boarding houses. In fash they
isnited- rhe 40 mile gale carried
sparks many blocks away and within
half an hour great area OF small
residences was burning.
The fire spread to nearby manufac-
turing plants SO rapidly that firemen
abandoned attempts to check the
flames and instead devoted their en-
ergies to warning householders. Pos
sible loss of life thus was averted. At
the manufacturing pants and cotton
congresses firemen and volunteers
had organized to fight the flames.
Walls and roofs were water soaked.
This water was evaporate1 quickly by
the advance guard of sparks, and
when the flames reacned the factories,
they succumbed as easily as the rows
of cottages.
An hour after the names began their
advance, the firemen organized for a
final stand at Buffalo Bayou, a small
stream that divides the eastern part
of the city from the main section, and
every piece of fire fighting apparatus
was stationed along the banks. If the
fire leaped the bayou, It meant the de-
struction of the city.
AS the advancing flames began to
reach the bayou banks thousands of
streams of water were nurled into
them, checking, little by little, their
progress. At some of the narrower
portions of the stream the flames
leaped across, but the more substan-
tial buildings did not afford the tin
/ der-like fuel heretofore encountered,
and the spread of the fire was pre-
vented.
Thousands of persons were driven
from their homes. In the cold of the
norther they suffered slightly from
exposure. Relief work was at once
set under way, however. and food and
clothing provided. Many persons were
hurt during the fire. but SO far as can
be determined, there were no. casu-
alties.
The burned area is at least a mile
long and at points a quarter of mile
wide. 1t embraces the ashes Of long
rows of cottages and solid streets of
manufacturing plants. 1t was swept
clean.
One of the first of the more preten-
tentious buildings attacked was the
brick Star and Crescent hotel The
inmates had been warned End all es-
capped without injury
The flames roar gave warning and
hundreds of persons, giving no heed
to the cold, dashed from their homes
clad only in their night clothes. Wo-
men carrying babies; women at whose
skirts small children clung, gathered
in homes of neighbors for refuge, only
to be driven out few minutes later
by the oncoming fire.