Year: 1875

town on the 26th OF October, gives the
following graphic description of the con-
! hagration and the scenes incident TO it I:


The greatest fire that has ever visited
Virginia City has just spent it force, and
4 the whole town from Taylor street north
is in ashes. About daylight the alarm
was given, the fire having broken ont in
private dwelling on A street. A high
wind was blowing at the time, and be-
fore the department could get at work
many buildings were in ruins. With in
credible rapidity the flames spread to B
street, and soon it was apparent that the
greater part of the city was doomed.
The alarm was taken up by all the hoist
! ing works in the city, and the shrill notes
of steam whistles and fire-bells, the
! howling of the wind, and the cracking
of the flames made a perfect bedlam of
sounds. The engines from Gold Hill
were brought into service, and every
available appliance used to check the
fire. Within an hour from the time the
first alarm was given, at least twenty
dwelling houses on A street, and the
main business portion of B street were
burned to the ground. The first build
ing that succumbed on b street was
Moneys livery stable, brick building
with a wooden roof all the horses and
carriages had been removed.


After leaping across several small
frame buildings the fire next took hold
of the County Court House, large
three-story brick edifice, in which were
confined about fifteen prisoners. These
were removed to an adjoining building,
/ ta1 tl.ait
own parole, as under the existing cir
cumstances nothing else could be done
with them. The east side of Il street
was soon enveloped in flames, ana the
fire was extending northward as fast as
high wind and a succession of wooden
houses could carry it. The firemen were
doing their utmost, but to no avail.
People removed their effects into the
street only TO have them burned before
they could be taken to place OF safety.
While the fire was thus extending
to the business heart of the town, it
was also crawling up toward the base of
Mount Davidson, destroying in its course
the finest family residence in the city. On
B street, the International Hotel, four
story brick, was burning on the roof, and
the jewelry mandatory of NJ. M. Fred
erick, on q street, was smoking, while
ut the same time the high wind was car
rying cinders as large as ones hand over
into the east side of G street, and pres
emily frame building in the rear of the
Enterprise Office was in flames. Thus
did the fire approach so quickly from B
to G street that business houses in the
latter thoroughfare were considered safe
until it was too late TO save anything
from them. The Enterprise Building
was on fire so soon that the accountants
books alone were saved. The office of
the Evening Chronicle was with its con-
tents totally destroyed. The FOOtlight,
published in the same building, was also
total loss. During the burning of
these buildings, the fire was making
rapid headway northward and eastward,
and communication between the ex-
tremes Of the city was cut off. Pipers
Opera House and adjacent buildings on
ID street were smoking hotly from the
roof, and soon burst into live flame.
1t was now the most exciting moment of
the fire. From the start the flames
seemed to approach directly the Consoli-
dated Virginia hoisting works and the
railroad depot, but now it was certain
that unless something extraordinary was
done the works and the large sixty stamp
mill must succumb. There were few
intervening buildings that had not yet
taken fire, and giant powder was brought
into use to destroy them. Explosion
after explosion thundered, but the high
wind and the great heat could not be
overcome by powder even, and the roar
ing flames marched straight down T.
street and to the mines and the mills in
their resistless course, sweeping every
thing before them, including the hoist
ing works and mill of the Consolidated
Virginia, the new battery mill of the
California, and the hoisting works of the
Ophir mine.


The Virginia hoisting shaft abuts on
the railroad depot, and northeast from il
are the hoisting works of the Ophir and
Mexican. The hoisting works of the
Consolidated Virginia were, at the time
they were erected, the best appoined of
any in the world. Attached to them
were mechanical shops for every mechan-
ical department connected with the mine
the whole costing from $500, 900 to $l00,
600. The new mill of the Consolidated
Virginia was connected with the hosting
works by railroad built upon woodwork
with trestes, and the fire dashed along
this for several hundred feet, till it
reached the mill, which was a lumber
built structure, and therefore fell rapid
prey to the fire.


As the progress of the fire became so
formidable the miners had been hoisted
to the surface from every part of the
works below, tine shafts bulkheaded near
the surface, and every precaution taken
to save the lives of the men and as much
property as possible. There is no doubt
that, had the situation been properly
taken in at the start, by the use of
few kegs of powder upon buildings that
had not yet taken fire, large portion
OF the city might have been saved. No
correct estimate can vet be made of the
losses. though they will probably reach
S5,000,0 900.