Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1901 — DAVENPORT’S LOSS IS $800,000. [ARTICLE]

DAVENPORT’S LOSS IS $800,000.

Relief Movement to Care for Victims of Thursday Night's Ft e. The estimated damage In Davenport, lowa, by Thursday night's fire is SBOO,000. A district a third of a mile square was ravaged by the flames. Not a stick is standing in the whole district. A relief movement was started at a mags meeting of citizens and measures taken to care for the homeless and destitute. Between two and three hundred persons are without a roof or any household goods. Ten firemen were prostrated and one, Emil Lucht, fell into the fire, but was rescued and probably will recover from the burns received. The loss of the Weyerhauser and Denkmanu Company is $500,000, insurance $300,000. Only the dying out of the wind saved the city from several times as much loss. Tfie fire was the most disastrous in tha history of the city. It is supposed to have been started by a lighted cigarette, and it burned with great avidity. Starting in the lumber yard, a strong wind blew it into the residence disti l, t, and within a few minutes the flames became so threatening that the local fire department sent nrgent appeals for assistance to Rock Island and Moline. After fighting the fire for seven hours the firemen, with the assistance of the townspeople, succeeded in getting it under control. At Sioux City, lowa, the fierce rays of the sun, beating through the plateglass show windows on the smith side of John F. Phelan’s dry goods store, caused an SBO,OOO fire Thursday. The light and highly inflammable contents of the show window burst into flames. The glass broke and in a few moments the three-story building was a roariug furnace. As a result vt the drouth at Dallas, Texas, the street commissioners ordered the sprinkling of streets with water to be discontinued. OH will be used in subduing the dust. Five-year-old daughter of Mrs. John Clarkson and 8-year-old daughter of Mayor Pock, Louisville, Colo., are dead* Tried to kindle a fire with coal oU.