A GREAT FIRE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1371, 23 February 1912, Page 5

A GREAT FIRE.

AMERICAN CITY IN FLAMES. ONE THOUSAND HOMELESS. By Tcleiraph-Pross Asgociatlon-uopyrtgh* New York, February 21. The city of Houston, Texas, is in llamos. The fire swept the eastern section of tho town, ilo.stro.vinß twenty-fivo blocks. Thousands of persons nro homeless. Scores of bin manufacturing plants have been burned, and cottoil valued at 2,000,(100 dollars destroyed. Employees of tho manufacturing houses sought to stny tho march of tho fire, but were helpless. Although the conflagration reached such enormous dimensions, it is believed (hat not a single life has been lost. There were many narrow escapes from the hotels when tho nl-irm was raised.

A THOUSAND HOMELESS. LOSS OF A MILLION ANT) A nALF. (Rec. February 22, 10.25 p.m.) New York, February 22. Relief Committees are operating to lelieve a thousand persons who have been rendered homeless through (ho great fire at Houston. Tho loss is estimated to exceed .£1,500,000. The fire originated in an untenanted house, and, fanned by a fierce gale, spread rapidly in a southerly direction. The flames were only checked ,-ivhen they reached the stream known ns Hie Bntfalo Bayou. Hero tho flames leaped tho stream several times, igniting the roofs of oil stores, but the firemen suppressed these blazes, and thus succeeded in preventing still greater damage.

Houston, with 78,800 inhabitants, is the second city of Texas in population. It lies on the narrow but navigable Buffalo Bavou, fifty miles inland from the port of 'Galveston. It is a characteristic specimen of a hustling jo-ahead Western city, and carries on a largo trade in cotton, sugar, limber, ami cotton-seed oil. lis manufactories ten years ago employed 5000 workmen, and since then have almost doubled in number and size. Among the chief buildings are the Market and City Hall, the Cotton Exchange, the Courtbouse, tho Post Office, and tho Masonic Exchange. Visitors to the city generally make a point of looking over some of its large cotton presses. Houston is the eastern centre for tho workshops of the Soutlwrn Pacific Railway.