GREAT FIRES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 370, 20 March 1902, Page 2

GREAT FIRES.

MUCH LOSS OF LIFE. DAZZLING SPECTACLES. ENORMOUS DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. FOOLISH ADVICE COSTING MANY LIVES.

(Per R.M.S. Sonoma, at Auckland.) SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27. On the night of February 21 a ter. rible hotel lire occurred in New York. About twenty people, as far as is known, were killed outright, and probably more than a hundred were injured., The Park Avenue Hotel, on the Park Avenue, was totally destroyed, and the circumstances were particularly sad and distressing. Many of those who were hurt or killed were men and women who had been sitting for two hours before death, watching the wonderful spectacle afforded by the burning of the Seventy-first Regiment armoury diagonally across the street. There is some reason to think that the Park Avenue Hotel lire was started independently of the armoury

fire, many believing the hotel lire was set alight by robbers, who hoped for plunder. It is, however, generally believed that the hotel was set on lire by brands from the armoury swept into the air shaft, which was directly beside the elevator, and'igniting debris piled up in tbc basement. The lire in the armoury started on this floor, where there was a tier of rooms occupied by different companies of the regiment. Within five minutes the whole structure was beyond saving, and ten minutes later the roof fell in with a

terrific crash. There was no one in the building at the time except the janitor and his family. These escaped by going through the scuttle hole 'in the roof, and on to the roofs of the houses adjoining. This passage was attended by much danger, owing to the condition of the roof. Six alarms were turned in, but in spite of the quick response, the structure was doomed. The prevailing gale made m impossible to check the flames. Several hundred pounds worth of ammunition stored in the tower explou-

ed parlfially wrecking the walls near where it was stored. This added terror, and caused fear of greater explosions to those who were fighting lire. It was not until almost three in the morning that the dames were discovered in the Park Avenue Hotel. Hie manager of the hotel had been on the roof watching the fire in the armoury with the guests of the liote . He wa standing on the first floor talking to the guests when the flames burst through the elevator shaft in the hotel of For two hours two tired clerks had been drawling out to anxious goes the same answer': Ao, su , no, madam ; there’s no danger. Tlus hotc is not on lire, and cannot catch die. Go hack to bed. You are as safe as though vou wefe a thousand mile. "TfiUsiders/reporters, policemen, and spectators in that hour and threequaxters when the hotel was m safety, went again and again to the office and asked ' “ Are you getting your people - Why should we?” was moull . . M'hic hotel is

variably the response. Ibis b°iei fireproof, and would not burn. Do no W Carriages l, fuTl’of men and women rolled up to the hotel m spite of the nrotests of the firemen, who neeaeu snice and the women from the operas and the theatres, after being assured that there was no danger, went to their rooms, some of them to die, When the alarm was given the guests wrapped themselves in sheets or whatever they could reach. Grea-t numbers were taken out at the wmdows of the fourth and fifth floors. Most of those who perished, finding themselves cut oil jumped from the windows, seveial as high as the sixth floor Some were burned to death, and this when the damage to the hotel was not so great, tat many guests continued to occupy rooms, and meals were served as usual in the dining room. ' At Paterson, New Jersey, on February 9, fierce flames left the ashes of ten million dollars worth of property In their wake. The fire burned its way through the business portion of the ritv claiming the majority of t finest structures devoted to the eomVnercial civic, educational, and re bilious ’use. Hundreds were left homeless and thousands without employment. A relief movement was organised at once, and Die Mayor declare Paterson would beabieto own without appealing to other com um ities or States. The great manufacturing plants were safe, and the community! temporary toed by extent of the calamity, soon be a an the work of re-organisation and restoratlOH* , „ -,if 11rl ra.-trpf]

The fire came at midnight, ana rageu about eighteen hours. Every city and town within reach sent firemen and apparatus, and it took the united efforts of these to save the threatened “ ? d u,c VS,ty e 3«KSc Sbi fare' two school houses, eugioe house, -j-S" ;f l ffl-5 l ”orrT,Tt,e°® C u,UiS rHss" mastfE

country apd was to follow. and the Paterson rests in a flre was a Thousands of hills that wall ' l New York and other people came j destruction, and the points to ie ® tle t , Aremen and disrecrowds impeded the arm destruclion garded all dprkness a ow from c tai re wat°chmen and reserve rr nSS “»«“ '«=,?"■' 10

were heavy losers, and it is likely a number of foreign companies will withdraw from business in America. Several small American companies will be ruined. St. Louis suffered from fire on February 9 also. Ten men and one wo-

man were killed in the early morning at an hotel lire, and a large number of others were injured. The property loss was not more than twenty thousand dollars. The night was terribly cold, and those not otherwise injured suffered from cold, a number being severely frost-bitten. The building destroyed was but three stories high, but tb.e flames spread with such rapidity that almost all the occupants of those were compelled to jump from the windows. As the result of a fire in New York at the same hour three hundred thousand dollars worth of property belong-' ir.g to the Shadboll Manufacturing Co. was destroyed, and fourteen persons were injured and taken to hospital.