Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1898 — BIG NEW YORK FIRE. [ARTICLE]

BIG NEW YORK FIRE.

GREAT BUILDINGS DESTROYED by Flames. a Twenty-Story Structures Help to Feed a Fnriona Blaze-Destruction of Rogers* Peet & Co.’s Building and Others Badly Damaged. Fire in the business section of New York Sunday night destroyed property to the value of millions. The Home Insurance Company building, the Postal Telegraph Company building, the United States Life Insurance building and the downtown establishment of Rogers, Peet & Co. were destroyed. Other structures in the neighborhood were also damaged. Rogers, Peet & Co.’s establishment is a total loss. All of the woodwork in the United State* Life Insurance building was burned away. The Postal Telegraph and the Home Insurance buildings were of stone and marble and were thought fireproof. The firemen were unable to cope with the fire in the big sky scrapers for the reason that it was impossible to reach the flames, as they made their appearance on floors midway from the basement to the top. A stiff gale was blowing and a blinding rain was falling. Over fifty fire companies were called to battle with the elements, for it was bitterly cold, and water soon formed coatings of Ice on the exteriors of the blocks upon which it was thrown. At 10:25 the roof of the Rogers, Peet & Co. building fell in. The flames leaped clear to the top of the Home Life building, fully 150 feet above the other roof. The effect was instantaneous. The Home Life window panes cracked, and in a minute fire burst from each of these windows as the furniture and curtains of the rooms ignited. The building had withstood the flames for nearly three-quarters of au hour, but in the end was conquered. For fully twenty feet on each side of the airshaft the flames were drawn into it and went roaring upward. Soon the windows here were sending forth flames almost equal in vigor, and it was evident that the fire had gained a stronger foothold here than at any other point. The Home building was one of the most magnificent of the modern skyscrapers on lower Broadway, and was conspicuous, even though it occupied a place next .the great block of the Postal Telegraph Company. The estimate of the losses by Chief Bonner after midnight was An insurance man roughly estimated the losses at about as follows: Rogers. Peet & Co., building and stock, and losses to other tenants in the building, $350,000. Home Life Insurance building and losses to other tenants, $500,000; Postal Telegraph building and losses to other tenants, SIOO,OOO.