Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1875-11-12 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

GREAT FIRE IN VIRGINIA CITY. Full details of the conflagration by which half a mile square of Virginia City, Nevada, has been destroyed, are contained in the New York papers. The fire began in an undertaker's establishment, spreading to adjoining livery stables. Streams of water were turaed upon the stables, allowing the flames to communicate to the county buildings. The wind blowing briskly from the west carried the flames through the town. The water supply gave out, and the engine and hose were burned in the streets. A panic seized the citizens, and the fire swept on unimpeded to the mills and hoisting works of the Consolidated Virginia, California, and Ophir Mines, destroying everything in its course. By good fortune the wind changed, and the south end of the town was saved, but the fire still swept on north wardly, and the town presented a scene of the wildest confusion anti panic, the streets being blocked with goods and household furniture. The recent scourge of typhoid fever caused the presence of many helpless invalids who were being carried to places of safety by their friends. The extortionate demands of owners of vehicles in one case at least caused a murder. A man in B street was endeavouring to engage a teamster, and, unable to comply with his demands, in desperation drew a pistol, and shot him dead. Approximate figures from Insurance companies place the losses sustained by them in the neighbourhood of £1,200,000. A despatch in the Herald of the 27th ult. says:—All the principal business portion of the town is gope and very many of the finest residences. A space half-a-mile by three•cmarters is burned over. Two men were killed this afternoon by a falling walL There was a tremendous gale blowing all-the forenoon, and but little could he done. The estimated loss will probably reach 8,000,000 dollars. Hundreds of people are utterly destitute, and hundreds of men have been thrown out of employment. The Catholic, Presbyterian, and Episcopal churches am destroyed. The other churches and school houses are thrown open for the sufferers. The city authorities and citizens are doing all they can, but the ruin is fearful. The city looks as though it had been blasted both by fire and earthquake. The most ghastly sight in the city is the tremendous machiaery of the mills and hoisting works standing out like spectres in the smoke. There are many sick in the city, and many touching sights were witnessed. The scene from the heights this morning was most terrible Hotels, mills, churches, hoisting works, newspaper offices, Opera House, business stores, and residences presented the appearance of a sea of fire. The wind blew a gale, and sometimes in whirlwinds. Explosion followed explosion in rapid succession. At noon it was reported that the fire had turned southward, running up the. hill. No estimate can be formed of the loss, but it amounts to millions in property actually destroyed and in retarding the working of the mines. Many buildings were blown up both on the east and north. Nothing stopped or checked the flames until there was nothing to feed upon. It looks now as though people were generally bankrupt, and it will take a long time for the city to recover from the disaster. The great number of people rendered homeless by the fire-10,000, it is stated—is accounted for by the fact that owing to the peculiar mode of life led by the large population engaged in the mines who work by shifts, day and night, in many instances the same lodgings were occepied at different hours by numerous tenants, and at no time was the household accommedation equal to the demand of the population. Nearly all the lodgings and dwelling-houses occupied by the miners were in the track of the conflagration in the north-easterly I course, being in the immediate neighbourhood of the mining works. At latest advices the fire had burned out, and all danger was at an end.  While a burglar was attempting to break into a house at Wanateail on Monlay morning, he fell from the first floor winaow, and broke his leg and arm.  MR.