SWEPT BY BIG FIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 109, 5 June 1909, Page 3

SWEPT BY BIG FIRE.

OVER 200 HOUSES AND BUSINESS CONCERNS BURNED. FIREMEN ARE FORCED TO USE DYNAMITE. SEVERAL PERSONS PERISH.

Fort Worth, Texas', U.S.A., April j). Six persons are known to have been killed and property estimated in value at over £1,000,000 was dcstroyed_in a lire which swept over the southern part of Fort Worth in the afternoon. A district in one of the most fashionable sections iu the city, having an area of twenty blocks, was practically swept clean of buildings by the flames. The detraction of even a greater amount of property was prevented only by the use of dynamite. The Texas and Pacific roundhouse, containing twenty engines', the repair shops of the road, the Sawyer electric plant, four churches, two public school buildings, and Walker's sanatorium were among the larger buildings destroyed. The exact losses on these latter are unknown, ior the reason that those who suffered scattered seeking shelter wherevvr they could find it, and it will us a day or two before the full extent of the personal losses sxp known. ( Texas and TaciHe Railroad oflicm.fi blaee their loss at £50,000. The losses to church property include the Broadway Baptist and Methodist Churches, tlicir losses being estimated conservatively at over £40,000. From Annie-street on the south, between Jennings and Calhoun streets, everything was swept clear to the Texas and Pacific Railroad reservations, a strip of unoccupied territory about /00tt 11 Among the fire companies filled from the outside towns to aid in fighting the flames was the majority of the fire torce Of Hulks. Soon after they had arrived here o:i a s)cial train there; began a series of fires in that city with which •the weakened lorevs were unable to compete. Seventy-live dwelling-houses and a large hospital were burned nv •three fires there. . The Forth Worth fire started in a barn at Jennings-avenue and Petersmith street. There was a heavy wind blowing at the time, and the ilames spread •with remarkable rapidity. So fast was ■the increase of the burning district that none who lived within three blocks of the first fire were' able to escape with even personal belongings. The fire was beyond all control within fifteen minutes after the first alarm nvas given, and appeals for assistance •were sent to near-by towns. Engines and crews were rushed from Bellas and Weathcrford on special trains, but even ■with these reinforcements the spread of the flames was not checked until they had eaten their way to the. Texas and •Pacific Railroad "reservation on the east. A patient whose identity has not been learned perished in Walker's sanatorium. •Three men were electrocuted- and their bodies burned to cinders in the Sawyer electric plant. Herbert Stacey was fatally burned in an endeavor to save his dwelling, and a fireman fell from a ■housetop and was killed. The Rev. H. 0. Cowan, assistant pastor oi the Broadway ~ PresfoyKrian Church, is missing.