FIRE IN SAN FRANCISCO

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 726, 17 October 1876, Page 3

FIRE IN SAN FRANCISCO

About 11 o’clock p.m. on Monday, the 9(h September, a fire broke out iu the Pacific box factory, on the easterly corner of Bran* nan and Fourth streets, aud a general alarm brought the entire department quickly upon the ground. A fresh westerly breeze was blowing, carrying the flames to the German Hospital, a two-storey brick building, having a frontage of ISTjft on Branuan street. The officers of that institution early saw the danger, and arrangements were at once made to remove the patients, numbering about sixty, to a place of safety. Strong arms were not wanting from among the surging crowd of people in the street to aid the helpless invalids. They were wrapped in bedding, and carefully carried into dwellings sufficiently removed from the conflagration to insure their safety, but a majority were conveyed to St Mary’s Hospital. The excitement among the populace was intense, as the frail beings were packed out, and the fire rapidly approached the doomed structure. Scarcely had the last patient been removed when the crackling of windows announced the falling of the building into the grip of the fire fiend. Ere long the entire edifice was wrapt in flames. In the meantime the fire had worked toward Fourth street, seizing upon the door, sash,

and blind factory of Haskell and Co, and the Excelsior Mills, owned by W. A. Meeker. The flames then worked into the warehouse of Gilbert and Moore, No 445, and a Chinese warehouse. The cigar box manufactory of V, Korbel and Co was quickly consumed, and a brick dwelling, owned and occupied by Mr Korbel, was completely gutted. By this time the flames had destroyed the factory of P. Elliott, No 4iß Brannan street, and attacked the lumoer yard in the rear of the Central Pacific Railroad Office, at the corner of Fourth and Townsend streets. The cars and horses were removed from the stables, and car depots of the Potrero and Bay View Railroad, and the roofs of the buildings were charred, but the progress of the fire was arrested in this direction. From the Central Pacific structure towards Third street, a row of dwellings, saloons, and boarding-houses were destroyed. The fire swept across Crooks, and Rich, and Liberty streets, consuming all the tenements in its course. Near the centre of the block was the family residence of Matthew Crooks, a large frame building, which was completely destroyed with all its contents. The members of the family escaped without a change of clothing or a piece of jewellery. In fact, nearly all the families in that vicinity were taken by such complete surprise by the fierce onslaught of the flames, that they hurriedly abandoned their homes and valuables to their fate, and fled for their lives. To add to the terror of the scene, volumes of black smoke almost blinded the panic-stricken people, and the air was thick with burning cinders, which were blown into their faces. A desperate effort was made to arrest the progress of the flames at the corner of Brannan and Rich streets, but the work was futile. The intense heat drove the firemen back, and destroyed the hose. The fire worked its way round a vacant lot in Rich street to Third, and soon a block of dwellings were in flames. As the fire ran along Townsend street, it licked up the Townsend street Hotel, the Southern Pacific saloon, the Palace sample rooms, T, J. Armstrong’s saloon, and Jere Cokeley’s saloon. As the flames spread, and the heat increased, there was imminent danger of the fire spanning the streets to other blocks, and streams of water were constantly directed to the surrounding buildings. Several dwellings on the northerly side of Brannan street were badly scorched. The Railroad Hotel, owned by Mr George W. Crowley, and occupied by Adam Ackmeyer, was considerably burned, and only by a desperate effort of the Department was it saved from total destruction. The streets in the vicinity were crowded with people as the fire progressed, and on the side walks were piled such household goods as had been snatched from the burning buildings. Women, scantily clad, rushed to and fro, some crying, others screaming for their missing little ones. Delicate women stood shivering in the cold cutting wind, mournfully surveying the destruction of their little all. The scene was touching in the extreme. Strong men wept like children as they contemplated the future, their half clad children clinging to them for protection. The usual groups of distressed women and children were huddled among piles of broken furniture, wringing their hands and weeping.