Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1901 — FLORIDA CITY A RUIN [ARTICLE]

FLORIDA CITY A RUIN

LARGE PART OF, JACKSONVILLE IS PREY TO FLAMES. Bittiness District Is Wiped Ot»t and Homes Are Left in Ashes—Fine Hotels and Theaters Among the Costly Structures that-Are Destroyed. Estimated 1098 $15,000,000 Number of people homeless 12,000 Heaths reported 6 Number of blocks wiped ont 13Q Public buildings destroyed 0 Houses burned........ 1,300 Jacksonville, Fla., was on Friday swept by the most disastrous fire of its existence' Millions in property was destroyed and 10,000 [are homeless. One hundred and thirty blocks of business and residence property are in ashes, 1,300 houses have been entirely wiped out ami the total loss will not be less than $15,000,000. Six lives are reported lost. This devastation was wrought in eight hours. No earthly power could have checked the flames that swept from one end to thfe other of the. city, fanned by one of the highest winds of the year and fed at every yard of their progress by dry wood and shingles. The little fire department worked till its members dropped from sheer exhaustion. A defective electric wire touching some loose material in a palmetto fiber factory at a few minutes after noon ignited it like a firebrand, and in a moment the building was in a blaze. The breeze, freshening every moment, caught the bundles of fiber and tossed them straight ahead in its path toward the east, where hundreds of homes stood. The burning stuff fell on roof tops and verandas, and catching everywhere it dropped soon started a dozen conflagrations where a moment before there was only one. Over a radius of half a dozen blocks four times that number of fires were started before the people had any warniug that the danger was anywhere near them. Dynamite was used in vain. Buildings were blown up right in the path of the fire, but before the echoes of the explosion had died away the burning brands were fastening on to new prey many yards ahead. There was no time to save anything, very little time indeed for thousands of people to save themselves. All the city and county records, the proceedings of the Criminal courts and archives that, have been accumulated since 1830 are lost,gone into oblivion with the buildings that housed them. The large State armory, the city hall with its tall tower and clock, the county court house, the criminal court building, the city jail, and the public market are all wiped out. All the graded schools of the city, the Roman Catholic Church and orphanage, St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic convent are gone, and every hotel of prominence in the city, some of them among the most famous tourist resorts of the South, have disappeared. Among these are the St. James, the United States, the Placide, the Windsor and the Duval. According to the city map, 130 blocks were burned, many of them in the heart of the business and residence section. The estimate of houses to the block is ten, hence 1,300 of them went up in smoke. Many of the finest private buildings in the city were destroyed, including theaters, churches and residences.