GREAT FIRE AT VANCOUVER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1277, 20 August 1886, Page 3

GREAT FIRE AT VANCOUVER.

The sfceamdhip Queoa of (ho Pacific arrived from Victoria bringing details of the Vancouver fire. Fiom the account of an eye-witness of the recent fearful holocaust at Vancouver, the devastation and misery wrought by the fire must have been frightful. The city consisted of about 750 buildings, allrframe, out of which 250 werebusinese places. Sunday, the 13th June, the day of the fire, and for several days previous, the town had been overrun with smoke from the burning of the timber in clearing lota. Many in the afternoon had gone away for an an afternoon’s enjoyment, sailing up the inlet, or off to Moodyville, or the T ndian villages across the inlet, leaving their stores and houses locked up, not anticipating any danger. The fire started at the edge of the Canadian Pacific town site from sparks from the clearing in a brush heap near a stable at the Western end of the town. The stable caught fire and a stong wind coming up fanned the flames across the street toadjoining buildings. The people, although the smoke increased, did not realise that the town was on fire, and were almost incredulous even when people came running down from the direction of it, as the smoke was so dense that the fire could not be located. Sooner than it takes to tell, the flames were upon them, and they could only seize what could be easily carried in their hands, and floe foy their lives. In one half hour time of the first alarm every building in town was on fire. People were seen running, tearing their burning clothing from them. Fathers were seen run» ning with children in their arms. Many jumped into the harbour, not having time to escape through the street, and it is thought many were burned. Several sick persons in the hotels barely escaped. Everything was pan* demonium. People fleeing, wailing, and clying, crazy with terror, hardly knowing which way to turn, the smoke blinding them, now starting in this direction, to be only driven back by a sweep of the flames nearly enveloping them. The wonder is that. no more are missing. Roughs took possession of the bars and the saloons, and were making merry over the free liquor when they were driven off by the flames, the liquor hardly haviig time to take efiect. The scene cannot be described by words. It came with such suddenness and so little warning, and was so quickly over, that the people could hardly realise that the black smoking embers before them were all that remained of their once happy homes. Their faces were the pictures of blank despair and dejeotment. The wind was so terrific in its velocity that False Creek, at the back of the town, a general placid body of water, was lashed into foam. Boards were stripped off the burning buildings and blown against the sides of neighbouring struc-

tures, and held there by the force of tne wind until the flames ought. Many, after escaping, rushed back, thinking they would have time to open safes or get money and valuables, only io be driven back. Many narrow escapes are told of. In one case Police Magistrate Boultbee and his brother-in-law, Johnson, were hemmed in by the flames. Anticipating death, they shook hands, lying down to de, but then, as a last resort, they burrowed holes in the earth with their hands, large enough to get part of their bodies in. They escaped with a few burns. A man with them tried to escape, and was burned to death, his watch alone identifying him. Scows and barges were used as a means of shelter. The majority of the people escaped across to False Creek. Such a procession of panic stricken people, wild in their flight, hardly kno wing whether to go or return ; mothers not knowing if their children were safe; husbands driven on by the flames, praying and moaning for the safety of their wives and children, as in their flight they could not help but be separated. Some with scorched hair and faces, arms and hands burned. People would throw away a valise or what they had saved to catch up a child paralysed by terror. Up to the Queen of the Pacific’s leaving eight bodies had been recovered, of which four were unidentified. Many undoubtedly were burned who will never be missed, as the city was full of people strangers to one another. The total loss is estimated at 750,000 dollars, with less than 75,000 dollars’ insurance. The insurance companies had lately refused to take risks at any premium. Many lost their all, having put all their capital into a lot, building, and stock ofgoods, and were left penui less. In an hour and a-half’s time the city was but a blackened heap of ruins, and people were traversing the streets searching for the bodies of the burned. The fire raged with such fury and rapidity that a wooden culvert underneath the ground was totally consumed Parties had piled it full of goods, and thought, as it was a little out of the way of the built-up portion of the town, that it would be safe. The next mom* ing many temporary new buildings were started, and others more extensive were planned to take their places as soon as building material can be obtained. The greater part of the new buildings will be built of stone and brick hereafter Enterprising real estate agents started business the next morning, with a table and a chair lor an oflice, amid the ruins. The Victoria merchants are very heavy losers by the fire, as they were carrying heavy accounts with the Vancouver storekeepers.