The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 9, 1904, Page 11

»* Pages 11 t0 20 BALTIMORE'S LOSS NEARLY TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS; TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED B ] B | e\ gCSL‘:D @%%fi%&t X laf Two Square Miles in the Business District a Blackened Waste. d then by of ar crash >uilding! in the rc ng dynam tructures used sh un- d by fi « was under the strictest mili- Al around the shurned »d a cordon of soldie comers at the point Police brought from th: cities patrolled the dis- the limits of the fire zone sentries. In the early army of fire fight- gainst overwhelming odds, : they have nothing b 3 we i broke the flames were e wharves d focused eat powerh e of the ng the the wall of ways Company, which sup- ¢ in a southerly direc- swer for all the street rail- vater. Sporadic fires e city. Then the flames ate d caused the with undiminished force . foll e fi at West Falls avenue, in t section of the city. There nued to burn to-night, but ly in spots and ceness and men from ing the line of Jones and new, large and | Wate £na ¥ ps, every imaginable vanished as the fire the south front of small | STAT Y STRUCTURES RAZED. gouth | Tpe hurned area is a scene of com- that por- Numberless build- e of Baltimore ring debris s remaining t Balti- last ped it—if by fly- { flame the con- | gain a foot- 't be foretc TRIUMPHS. HUMAN SKILL bulld- re made to|ing, only rked the biock mite was used | front re re blocks just { The fir us was cen- | low there i out. F t all the sk fire fight- | street down Holl as fa SEPE - to t the ele- |there is no ing left ve the Corn - . X p miliions of |and Flot xchange at the corner é ¥ Ser of German street. That building, whose and pluck, and grit, | walls tower above the crumbling debris | ‘ courage won. The fire | of what are adjoining structures, was v gutted and the standing walls formed “ at waste of |a caldron, the flames of which burst n i t at times through the windows, but > fire area | could cause no further damage. In wae With spectators. Down | numcrous other wrecked buildings the the narrow streets the black smoke | flames played about the debris and AR dimjilm ally checked near the | with diminishing d Baltimore | S Pages 111020 . * FRANCISCO, TUESDAY, TFEBRUARY 9, 1904. UILDINGS ARE DES s hmn | e T b nogog 100000 0aeEal S N 0ngnonooacIoy Martial Law in the Stricken City. | threatened to weaken the foundations | of the few walls that were left. Like a grim tower in the ruins stan the wal the fifteen-story Conti | nental Trust Company building. The | walls of the Baltimore and Ohio build- ing are standing, but the Pennsylvania ing, directly across Calvert street, razed. Only the walls remain of the s wall is left of what was once the Na- tional Hotel, at Holliday and State {streets. No buildings are left stand- ing as far as the eye can see down Bal- timore street from this street. ON SOUTH GAY STREET. Along South Gay street there is the same picture of destruction. A broken sign and a tottering front wall show | where the Maryland Women's Chris- jan Temperance Union building once tood. Adjoining this was the build- Jing occupied by the Iron Ship Com- | pany. The German consulate on this | square is in ruins. | The costly United States Custom- house, in course of construction, and occupying the triangular block be- | tween Lombard and Water streets and Exchange place, is satd to be ruined. The only other Federal building dam- aged was the United States store No. 1, | ™ Continued on Page 13, Column 3. o0 | once stately Equitable building. One | 00t Voo R Ay N s \ \\ \ SO \m\\§-\ W SCC\ TR mm\\\\m\\\\\\\‘ \\\'\ N oo 4 supocopood “H00conoen LacInona gaanaa Wi v Map of Baltimore showing the burned district. This is within the territory bounded on the west by Liberty street, on the north by Lexington street, on the east by Jones Falls and on the south by the Basin. Within this district were the big structures on Fayette, Gay, Lombard, Charles, Balderon, | Ellott, Hoilingsworth and Cheapside streets. Passing southeast along the Basin the following large docks were destroyed: McClure's, Patterson, Smith's, Fredericks, Long and Union. Small thoroughfares which extend as far north as Lexing- ton street and which were in the path of the flames are Com- merce, Fredericks and Mill streets. The district thus swept by the fire comprised eighty - five blocks and nearly 2500 build- ings. v T TN B N I s 1 =mi i\ {mm{v7sa) | ness feil to-night the people of the | | The flames, \ ‘.\\‘“\ \\\ \\\\& \\Kn\s-}\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ \ N ™ ‘flvrmy ;f Firemen; Aided by a Muddy Little Stream, — — — P o 4 5N ROYED e e— §v " BN an Wileredin TR 4 pIancg AuILy <HEEE ooCgo JOgo o R S Finally Conquers Flames After Baitling More Than Twenty-Eight Hours. BALTIMORE, Feb. §.—When dark- stricken city knew the worst was over, which for more than | twenty-four hours had swept resist- lessly through the heart of the city, were checked. An army of firemen from many cities, working heroically and aided by a muddy little stream, finally conquered. Worn by a night and day of terror, the great crowds that watched. the | ruin of their city turned homeward and at midnight the streets were de- serted save for the police and mili- tary, who guarded the burned area. To the south a red glow rises and falls, marking 140 acres of devastation ——eighty-five squares of property that yesterday represénted values to the extent of from $75,000,000 to $125,- 000,000. Not even a close approxi- mation can be made of the loss. No guess can be made of the insurance. ‘An expert, the city Building In- spector, estimates the loss in buildings alone at $150,000,000. On the other hand, it is said, some estimates do not place the total lgss at a greater figure. So far there has been no systematic at- tempt to fix the values that were rep- resented in the disaster in ghat which is to-night a devastated waste, { | | l | Experts who have given them as close | POrary. One factor that will figure largely in|from corporations and from private the final estimates consists of the se- | Citizens, but Baltimore’to-night can- urities in the banks and trust com- |NOt say whether or not it will | 1 panies whose homes were destroyed. |Or accepted. That will be decided 14 Fheir vaults and safes to-night are in | morrow. There is talk of a searcity the ruins, covered by tons of debris. |food, but at most this can be & Twenty-four hours examination as possible express the be- | suffice to bring provisions in lim lief that the contents are safe. | auantiti On the correctness or falsity of this | belief depends many millions of dol- | lars. { from Fayette street to Eastern avenue. Not a single life had been lost and not | ét this point a }?alt-dazen fire com- a human being has been even danger- | panies were fighting from the rear, ously injured. | while other companies were flanking The hospital lists contain the names | on the Jones Fa and Liberty street of men suffering from minor burns, | borders. Sandw s and coffee were with the exception of Jacob Ilgrin- | served from drays, and coal was fed gritz, a fireman from York, Pa. He|to the engines. has a fracturdll leg and is badly burned. | PERILS OF THE FIREMEN. There has been little or no excite-| pyery bridge over Jones Falls had a ment and there has been no hysteria. | s.ore of firemen and not infrequentiy T R L there |} oy were compelled to turn their at- has been mo looting or attempt at loot- [, ijon from towering pyres to put out B Tilase wnd omls e throb of taa | L O i 4 > ep waler. Ol anks ol ones laboring fire engines and the bvmrv of ‘:f‘”'s were lined with lumber yards dynamite as it kfringx dangerous walls | 4" ipe piles on one side were biagzing fo.the. SrOTuTIMsSieg the etiet: constantly and those¢ on the .other NO APPEALS FOR AlD. throwing off clouds of steam caused far there has been no call for |by the water turned on wood heated Proffers of assistance have come many quarters, from sister cities, | Continued on Page 12, Columa (, o’clock ‘this afternoon So ald. {rom