Show fifteen families MILIES Fh residents of Cli chelsa elsa massachusetts made homeless by flames and two lives are lost A square mile of territory burned over the manufacturing tenement and retail district being scene of worst conflagration in history of city doston boston an apparently insignificant lire fire which started among rags on a 11 dump in fit tho the city of chelsea on sun still day was fanned by a northwest gale into a conflagration which obliterated nearly one third of tho the city five hundred dwelling houses and public buildings were destroyed fifteen him dred died families wore driven from their homes and ton tell thousand people are aio homeless two lives are known to have been lost and front from fifty to one hundred persons persona were injured accurate estimates of the loss tire are impossible tile tho city solicitor estl esti mates it at nearly tile tho fire raged before a 45 mile gale for more than twelve hours defying the utmost efforts of trio the combined fire departments part ments of chelsea and several nearby cities and a largo large detachment of boston firemen and apparatus the fire area which was in the form of an elapse a mile and a halt half long and half a mile wide at its broadest part extended diagonally across the city all the banks more than three of the churches half of the bust bual ness blocks and nearly all the school houses were wiped out ono hospital and a lay day nursery were destroyed the fire started almost from the extreme southwest section of the city and cut a path to the end of maverick street at the extreme southeast ern end of the city which borders border chelsea creek this is about one all and a half miles from where the fire began tile tho flames spread through the heart of tho the retail business section which was about midway between tile the two extreme limits reached by the fire |