Las Vegas optic. (East Las Vegas, N.M.) 1908-1921, 1913-07-05
LOSSES into THE THOUSANDS
oRTEGA, LOPEZ AND sENA, PA
PENS AND LUJANs ARE THE
SUFFERERS
GREAT WORK BY FIREMEN
HUNDREDS VIEWED THE sPEcTA
cuLAR CONFEDERATION FOR
FOUR HOURS

one OF the most spectacular fires
in the history Of East Las Vegas and
one which did enormous damage oc-
Cured on Bridge street between
Twelfth street and the bridge at an
early hour this morning, The loss to
the buildings and merchandise de-
stroyed is estimated to be between
$4,000 and $55,OOO.
Juan Ortega's second hand store
where the fire is said to have started;
Lopez and sena's dry good store, the
building next to it and Papen's gro
cery store, suffered the largest losses.
The first two stores were entirely de-
stroyed. The building occupied by
Papen was almost entirely gutted.
What of Papen's stock that was not
DESTROYED by fire was ruined by water
The stock Of ]. Y, Lujan's feed store
the building east Of Papen's, was dam
aged by water to a big extent. The
6remen we're forced to flood Lu1an's
stare with water in order to check
the flames from eating their way to-
ward Clay and Giyens' livery stable.
The alarm was turned in at l2;2O
o'clock this morning. Edward Hart
grove resident Of East Las Vegas,
had been attending the carnival He
accompanied friend named Lu1an,
noticed a glare of light on Ortega's
front windows as they pass dthe store
Hartgrove looked in. One Of the men
remarked that the light was to irreg-
ular to be from a lamp and an inves-
tigation was at once made.
The men had some difficulty in
breaking open the front door Of the
store When the door was opened the
men could smell the smoke. They
hurried to the rear of the building and
discovered the flames They attempt
ed to extinguish the blaze but It had
gotten too big start. They at once
left the building and notified the fire
departments.
Most Of the members Of the Las We
gas fire departments were attending
the fremens ball at the armory when
the fire alarm was turned in. The men
we're dressed in their best clothes, but
when the seriousness Of the fire was
seen by them they emerged from the
building they did not hesitate but
started working like beavers to ex-
tinguish the flames
9 a few minutes after the fire depart
ment arrived it was thought that the
fire was under control. Suddenly the
flames seemed to take new life and
thew at once started to spread to the
building occupied by Lopez and sena.
The aremen doubled their efforts but
we're unsuccessful in checking the
flames
The water pressure was unusually
gooa last night and this proved a val
uable asset to the fire fighters In fin
ally putting the fire out. The fremen
constantly played two streams Of wa
ter on the flames. The fact that but
two streams, were used, speaks well of
the aremen in at last getting the
flames under control and keeping
them from spreading to the livery
barn. Another fortunate thing about
last nights FIRE was that there were
no buildings west Of Ortega's store
which were in danger at any time Of
catching on fire. The firemen were
only obliged to put their efforts To-
ward checking the flames and keeping
them from eating their way to the liv-
cry stable r. the flames had eaten
their way to the stable it IS probable
that that entire section of the city
would have been destroyed
Too much cannot be said Of the
brilliant work. Of the fire departments
The heads Of the departments reallz.