Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1897 — PANIC AT A BIG FIRE. [ARTICLE]

PANIC AT A BIG FIRE.

Residents of Chicago Stock Yards District Terrorized by Flames. Ten acres of ground a waste of ashes, the homes of a dozen families destroyed, the entire Chicago stock yards district threatened by flames, five persons injured and one said to be burned to death, and a property loss of over SBO,OOO. This is the result Of a fire that for two hours Wednesday afternoon had the people living near the stock yards in a panic of terror that led them to believe that the great conflagration of 1871 was to be duplicated almost on its twenty-sixth anniversary. The flames were first seen in one of the stock yards horse barns, just opposite the end of Forty-fourth street at Halsted, a little before 3 o’clock. They spread with startling rapidity. The attendants who rushed to the rescue of the 500 horses being kept there were chased from stable to stable by the flames, and their duty was only accomplished at the imminent risk of their lives. In fifteen minutes it was evident that the horse barns were doomed dbeyond any possibility of salvation. In thirty minutes their destruction was so nearly complete that their frameworks had disappeared and nothing but a mass of flames and fire marked their location. The whole region was in a panic and men came hastily from every side to aid the firemen in their struggle to save the surrounding buildings. The wind that blew strongly from the south carried the flames and burning pieces of timber directly upon the great doomed pavilion, which is the center of the whole horse traffic in the yards. At 5:30 o’clock the flames finally were got under control. The fire was the worst that lias taken place in the stock yards district for many years. The drought of the past months and the heavy wind that was blowing combined to make its progress very easy. The firemen, who were called from all parts of the city to fight it, came exhausted from hard work in keeping down the prairie fires that had been threatening the suburbs in half a dozen places, and were in poor condition to work against a holocaust.