Arizona republican., 1918-01-02
THREE EXPLOSIONS ATTEND FIRE WHICH RAZES BUSINESS
 DISTRICT OF NORFOLK, VA.
Republican A. P. Leased Wirel


 blocks in the heart of Norfolk's busi- ness district, including the Monticello hotel, were destroyed, one man was killed and a score more injured in series of explosions and fires today which both the police and naval au- thorities believe were incendiary. The fire had been checked tonight but still was burning fiercely in the ruins. The loss is roughly estimated at more than $2, 900 900.
 Three distinct explosions in as many buildings, one after the fire once had virtually been brought under control, | led to the general belief that enemy agents were at work. Mayor Mayo | practically placed the city under mili- | tary rule by turning the situation over ] to the naval officers, and some 2,50O | marines and bluejackets from nearby | naval stations assisted the police and home guards in maintaining order and | preventing vandalism.
 l Naval patrols rounded up suspected | persons throughout the afternoon while i five men were arrested as suspects. | Two of these, Hugo Schmidt and H. K. | | Lessing said to be Germans, were turned over to department of justice agents. Tonight there were reports that two Germans had been shot by sailors during the day, but neither the police nor naval authorities would con- firm them.
 The fire started before dawn in the
 old Granby theater on Granby street and gained rapid headway as the fire
 men were handicapped by frozen hyd- rants, low water pressure and near | .ttrt- iol-I +n
 the Monticello hotel and other nearby
 buildings in the block. It was brought
 under control late in the day, but broke
 out anew early tonight, leaped across Granby street and leveled half the
 block there before being checked.
 Falling floors and walls took toll of
 firemen and naval guards. One fire man, Charles Mccoy, was killed and
 seven others were hurt in the collapse
 of an upper floor of the Monticello hotel during the day and tonight. two fremen and several sailors were caught in falling wall of the LenoX building.
 Three were brought out badly hurt, but two others were left in the debris Bremen of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk with organized sailor fire bri- 7 gades fought heroically amid ice and binding smoke, and bluejackets led the rescue work when the fighters were
 trapped. Several of the firemen caught in the hotel were brought out alive :. through the daring of a score of the | jack tars.
 Reports as to the number of eX-
 plosions vary. It was first said that l the fire in the Granby theater had fol- 9 lowed an explosion but Fire Chief Me- 8 Laughlin and naval investigators an- d nounced tonight that this was not the e case. They said, however. there had
 been three separate and distinct eX- s plosions. The first was in the cloak . and hat shop near the Monticello. The second was on the sixth floor of that . hotel after the first fire was virtually : under control and the third in the s Lenox building which later was de- e stroyed.
 Guests from the Monticello. who were o forced to flee in the biting cold of the
 dawn after they had watched the thea . c ter burn, were taken care of in nearby
 homes and hotels. As building after
 building went down, with them ar . apartment house, scores were made - homeless and the national guard ar e mory on City Hall avenue was thrown 2 open to them.
 . There during the late day Red Cross k workers and other volunteers looked | after lHeTl ana also SuppileQ cO11ec if and sandwiches for the naval patrols
 and firemen who were forced to seek n rest from their gruelling work against T the flames.
 d When the firemen responded to the l. alarm for the theater fire. they found e all hydrants in the vicinity frozen
 Fires had to be built to thaw them out e In the meantime the. firemen looked or l. helpless while the big theater building l. burned. When the water finally came
 the pressure was so low that streams 1T would not reach to the upper storie ,- of the burning building and the fir, le soon was beyond control.
 '- Portsmouth, across the EliZabetl to river, was called upon for aid and tn, es fire was checked until falling spark It fired the Monticello, where many O
 the guests had gone back to bed in tn m belief that the fire was controlled The r. were soon forced to turn out again.
 The combined departments appar s- ently were making good headwa, er against the flames when the exploso of occurred in the cloak shop and anothe 1e blaze started. Suffolk then was aske to fo raid and rushed apparatus to the cit
 by train. In the meantime the navs ch authorities at the navy yard and navi
 (Continued on Page Two)