The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-06-26
$4,000 SUFFER
LOSS OF HOMES
IN SALEM FIRE
Flames Under Control After
Fifteen Hours of Desper-
ate Fighting - Property
Loss $15,00O,0OO.
Water Supply Exhausted
Militia Patrols City and
Governor Sends Out Ap-
peal for Aid.

SALEM, Mass, June 26.-Two hun
dred persons were unaccOunted foI
today in Salem's great fire. The
flames were under control at 5 O'Clock
this morning after raging for fifteen
hours unchecked. Four persons are
known to be dead, fifty have been in
jured, and from fifteen to twenty thou
sand are homeless. The property loss
five million dollars.
The city is practically without wat
er. The thousands of homeless are
being fed today in great army camp
set up on Highland avenue. One thou
sand cots, one thousand tents and one
thousand blankets are being distribut
ed among the fire sufferers. Rations
for ten thousand are being served by
the militia commissary department
Five thousand homeless are being shell
tered under canvas today.
One Thousand Buildings Burn.
TOdays rations to the homeless con
sisted Of a loaf of bread, a can of beet
and a cup of coffee. Rich and poor
We're served alike. The wealthy sec
ton Of the city as we'll as the tene
ment districts are in ruins. One thou
sand buildings We're burned.
Governor Walsh is personally super
vising the relief work. He arrived on
the scene last night and worked all
night among the fire sufferers. The
governor issued an appeal for aid.
The city is now under martial law
of the strictest kind All looters will
he ,hnt oh A Of
tia now extends around the burned
section.
Water Supply Fails.
Adding to the suffering of the home
less was a water famine. Drinking
water was brought in buckets from
springs in the outskirts of the city. or
carried from Peabody, Beverly, Mar
bic cad and Lynn. SO small was the
supply of water that only scantily
filled tinful could be allotted to each
applicant.
The fire has laid waste one third of
the city. The flames spread from the
southeast a mile and half. after hav-
ing been started by an explosion of gas
in the plant of the KOrn Leather com
pany. The flames then cut a crescent
S aped area in the business district
over a mile wide. Block after block
was dynamited in an effort to check
the fire. The railroad depot was
among the buildings dynamited.
A score of factories We're destroyed
including the mill OF the Maukmeage
Cotton company, which had six thou
sand hands on its payroll, being one OF
the largest in the world. In the de
struction of the industrial plants the
city and its in abitants suffered a tire
mendOus loss. Thousands of en-
plOvcs lost their jobs as we'll as their
homes.
Hospital Destroyed
The Salem hospital was destroyed A
hundred patients. Of which thirty were
injured in the fire, We're hurriedly re
moved to the almshOuse and to the
Beverly hospital. Amhulances, auto
mobiles, hacks and grocery wagons
were pressed into SERVICE One old
woman died during the transfer
s;alem'a buildings of Ma: wide
fame escaped the flames. The "HOust
of Seven Gables,' HaWthurnn's birth
place: the Essex institute, the Peabody
museum, the old town house and other
structures famed in the historical anc
literary annals of the country, are still
preserved.
Soon after the fire started at D. m
yesterday the city was cut off from the
outside world by telephone and tele
graph.