The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-09-19
THOUSAND HOUSES
LOST IN Big FIRE
Twenty Five Persons Are Injured In
Berkeley COnfIagration Which
Causes 100000 Damage

Berkeley, Cal, Sept. 18.-(By the
Associated Press.)-More than 1000
houses were destroyed, with a proper
ty loss of $4,000 600, in a fire in
which the northeast residential Sec
ton of Berkeley was devastated yes
terday, according to reports of a sur
vey completed at NOON today by City
Assessor Harry j. Squires.
A tabulation at 10:45 o'clock this
morning lists 25 persons injured as a
result of yesterdays fire, few serious
~, and rs missing. Many of the lat
ter are children and are believed
merely to have become separated from
their friends. Reports of persons
killed in the collapse of buildings per-
slst but there was 10 confirmation of
them at that hour.
A search for bodies among the
charred ruins of the Cragmont Sec
ton of Berkeley, laid waste by yester-
days disastrous fire, was conducted
today but without result.
Acting Chief of Police Clarence Lee
has issued notice that all looters will
be shot, and it was announced that no
one will be allowed in the burned area
unaccompanied by a police officer.
Berkeley and the rest of the East
Bay district were obscured by a heavy
pail of smoke which converted the
sun into a growing ball at dawn today.
More than $500 homeless persons are
facing the task of reconstruction.
The Berkeley fire department. still
augmented by portions of the Oak
land department and hundreds of VOL
unteers, worked throughout the night
TO keep the flames back into the
burned area. They continued their
work long today as did the national
guardsmen, members of the reserve
officers training corps of the univer-
slty, and Berkeley and Oakland DO
llcemen and CITIZENS sworn in for emer-
gency duty to guard the ruins.
Forty-five square blocks of Berke.
iey's most beautiful homes from the
university campus up the hill tops.
north and east, have been devastated
by the fire which is said to be the
worst experienced by any California
city since the San Francisco disaster
of 1906.
The problem of housing the home
less families and occupants of frater-
nifty , sororiety and apartment houses
IS now occupying the attention of CIV
lc authorities, the Red Cross and other
organizations.
On the wings of a hot dry wind that
swept ~furiously from the landward a
brush fire in the Contra Costa county
hills above San Francisco bay leaped
down the valley into Berkeley yester-
day afternoon and for a time gnawed
It's way unchecked toward the heart of
the college town.
Dynamite, with which the fire fight
ers ripped away a fire break on the
northeast, served to cheek the spread
OF the conflagration in that direction
but 1t was not until the wind subsidized
INTO a gentle breeze shortly after 7
o'clock that the rapid advance of the
fire was checked and the danger of
further destruction averted.
Nearly a dozen persons were treated
at hospitals and infirmaries in Berke.
ley for minor injuries and burns, re-
sultlng from attempts to rescue house
hold goods from homes menaced by
the flames, but none of the cases was
considered serious.
In a statement issued at midnight
Mayor Frank D. Stringham declared
that a proper water service and supply
probably would have averted the dis
aster.
When darkness fell last night Ber-
kelley virtually was an armed camp.
with 700 soldiers of the regular army