The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-05-22
THOUSANDSARE
HOMELESS BY
ATLANTA FIRE
Flames Checked BY Dyna-
mite to Stop Spread
WOMAN LOSES HER LIFE
National Guard is Called Out to Pre-
vent Looting-ResidentiaI, Negro
and Business Sections Afire

Atlanta, Ga, May 21,-Five thous
and persons were made homeless to
night and thirty-siX closely built city
blocks. more than a mile square, are
in ruins, the result of disastrous fires
which swept for nine hours. first
through the negro sections, and then
to the residence in the fashionable
Ponce de Leon section, Dynamite
was restored to time and again TO
check the path of the flames. and not
until late tonight was the fire prac-
tically gotten under control,
National guardsmen from Camp Nc
Pherson are on guard in the whole
iire-swept regions. The loss is esti-
mated at $3,0Q0.000.
The fires started--or at least two
of them-at 10:30 O'Clock this morn.
ing They were sweeping a block on
East Fair street and in the West End
and demanding the efforts of the city's
entire apparatus. Ii was impossible
for the fremen in the other sections
to reach the third fire in time TO pre-
vent its spreading. Aid was sum
moned from other cities. The flames
shooting skyward and catching on
nearby buildings, began to get away
from the fighters. On Edgewood
avenue they jumped across the street
to sun dried roofs of cottages. The
fire spread northward and eastward
aided by a high wind.
The fire started near the j. X. Orr
shoe factory The windows and doors
of this great plant were quickly shut
tered and the building presented fire
proof bulk to the flames.
In the Woodward avenue fire, siS
houses were destroyed and twenty
five others caught but were saved by
the desperate efforts of the firemen.
In the West End fire, three homes
were destroyed, three badly damaged
and several others marred by the
flames.
The Edgewood avenue fire spread
from is starting point eastward and
northward, burning like cardboard the
flimsy cottages OF negro residents in
that quarter The streets were filled
with frantic screaming residents.
Household goods were scattered all
around.
Trees, telephone poles, fences and
everything in the path of the flames
began to go,
The firemen then changed their tao
tics. Instead of trying to save burn
ing structures they began to face the
fire, As the minutes pass
ed and the flames cut their way to-
ward the residences in the beautiful
North Side, the fire fighters great
struggle was to prevent further loss.
Some of the most serious losses
were in the section where dynamite
was used. scores of pretty homes in
a comparatively new district of the
city being blown up. Practically the
entire section bounded by Hilliard
street on the west, Prospect place on
the east, Edgewood avenue on the
south and North avenue on the north
was laid waste The flames never
got nearer Peachtree street, the main
of the city, than seven
blocks, although at times momentary
change of wind threatened in that di
rection.
The fremen were hampered by an
odd trick of fate. The flames leaped
over the houses on the edge of blocks
and caught houses in the middle. This
made the firemen's work most diff
cult and helped the spread of the
flames Reaching north, the flames
swept out 1illiard and Houston
streets, licking their way through me-
gro dwellings toward the fashionable
district.
path two blocks wide was cut
across Auburn avenue and onward 1t
swept rapidly toward Irwin street.
There it was checked, but only tenn
porarily. 1t quickly leaped across the
space into another block
and came on unchecked north upon
Houston street.
Here the struggle with the flames
reached climax at nightfall, when
the fire fighters began dynamiting a
wide area to protect the Ponce de
Leon section. The effort was only
successful, and an hour la
ter the dynamiters had to begin their
work over again two blocks beyond
the avenue. A lull in the wind favor
ed their work and tonight they were
about holding their own, though many
still feared that before morning the
flames again would gain headway and
burn their way through to the edge
Of the city.
One report, unconfirmed. said that
six negro children were burned to
death in a Fort street home.
The confagration started in an old