A TREMENDOUS FIR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 90, 11 September 1914, Page 2

A TREMENDOUS FIR.

HALF A Cfi'i DESTROYED. 20,000 PEOPLE HOMELESS. CAMPING IN FIELDS AND STREETS A great fire devastated on June 2i> the historic town of Salem-, Massachusetts, and rendered 'homeless '20,000 people, or nearly half the population. The damage is in Hie neighbourhood of £1,000,000. Ten lives were tost in the tenement houses of the factory district, and a nurse at one of tlio hospitals which was burned died of fright. Fifty injured people htc in hospital. Jn the streets and open spaces 800 people are encamped, while thousands inoro are sleeping in fields, cemeteries, and along the waterfront. At the lowest estimate 2,000 houses and over 20 factories have been burned down. Several historic buildings have been destroyed-,'" including Nathaniel Hawthorne's "House of tho Se-Ycn Gables." The outbreak started in a boot and shoe factory near the Witches Hill, where a number of women were executed for witchcraft in 1C92, and in a very short time had spread all over this quarter, driven by a strong wind from the eea. BUILDINGS DYNAMITED.

Fire brigades from all the neighboring towns were hurried to Salem, and did all possible to fight the flames. Whole blocks of buildings were dynamited to prevent the fire from spreading. After the Mason street district had been cleared some oil tanlcs exploded, and gave rise to a fresh outbreak. Near the scene of the outbreak the houses were practically all of wood, and the fire quickly devoured them and spread across the. railway to Soui/n Sailcm. The flames jumped tho river and destroyed some huge lumber yards. A patch three miles long and a mile and a-half wide, including*ili;Uf the town area, wa s laid in ruins before t'ha fire was got under control. The water supply failed, although thj neighboring town of Peabody turned the whole of it's supply into the Salem mains. 'The electric light supply failed early, 'ind the tramway current a little later. On hearing of the disaster the Governor of Massachusetts raced from lioston in an automobile and called out the whole of tho Bth Regiment, as .well as all the naval and land forces available. The City Orphan Aisyhim was menaced, but the children were got out in good order, as were 2CK) patients at the general hospitals, which were among the first (buildings to-be burned down. The women in charge of the Catholic schools refused to budge until .the last of several hundred children were safe. At the time of the greatest pressure, when the men were desperately fighting the liames, a water main burst, flooding the immediate area, and compelling firemen to remain idle while the flames were eating up blocks of buildings. A milk famine, which followed the fire, was stayed by the neighboring farmers, who gave all their available supplies. Provisions were also sent in from the Surrounding towns for the thousands who Were without good. The wjhviiv companies fire, ~ "g supplies free." intendiarism suspected.

The burned district is being patrolled by militia with fixed bayonets, in order to prevent looting, and'to keep people away from danger. Furniture and revolutionary relics of almost priceless vailue, handed down from generation to generation, are destroyed, whilo tbe historic loss to Saleiiv of some of its finest buildings is enormous. The police suspect that the outbreak -was started by incendiaries. Martial law has been proclaimed, and it is intimate'd that looters will be shot on sight. The soldiers are distributing lO.OCK) rations from tin; commissariat stores. There are quite 200 people missing, but it is believed that most of these have been taken in by friends.