Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1907 — VICTORIA SUFFERS DESTRUCTIVE FIRE [ARTICLE]

VICTORIA SUFFERS DESTRUCTIVE FIRE

Five Blocks Wiped Out, Including Many Residences Homeless Cared for by Friends. Victoria, B, C., July 25. —The greatest fire in Victoria’s history occurred in the evening, destroying five blocks and many detached buildings. Starting in the unused boiler room of the defunct Albion works, the fire wiped out the shacks of the tenderloin, bounded by Herald and Chatham streets to Government street and was carried in a swiri of flying embers from block to block, until five blocks had been wipe dout. From Storer street to Quadra, four blocks eastward, and between Herald and Chatham and Pioneer streets, scarcely anything escaped, and beyond the flying embers carried the Are on to another block, a number of scattered fires starting at distances of several. hundred yards from each other. Firemen aided by the soldiers of the garrison and a host of volunteers fought desperately, pulling down manjbuildings in the path of the fire, which was eventually brought under control at 7 p. m. The loss is estimated rt $250,000. The police procured blankets and tents for those rendered homeless, but not one application for shelter was received, all those burned out being sheltered by friends and at the hotels. The tenderloin was almost completely wiped out and three churches were destroyed, the other buildings burned being residences.