Show FESNO LOSES ilF A MftU 1 RAISIN PACKING HOUSES 133v STEOYZB BT ITELE Will Throvr Hundreds of Needy Nen and Women Out of Employment Many Preight Cars Burned Fresno CaL Aug 14The conflagration that devastated a large area in the pack Ins house district in Fresno at midnight was ont gotten under control until daybreak day-break this morning The aggregate loss is now variously estimated from a conservative con-servative standpoint at from 300000 to 5450000 The buildings together with their entire contents destroyed were The Forsyth Seeded Raisin Packing company and the establishment of the Phoenix Packing house the Union Ice Works partly destroyed the National Ice com panys establishment the Farmers ware house the Einstein warehouse Hobbs Parsons partly destroyed the residence of John Doyle yardmaster In addition to the buildings enumerated the Southern Pacifics loss will be considerable consid-erable Several strings of freight cars along the sidetracks near the warehouses were a mass of flames before the force of railroad men could haul them away The freight depot of the Southern Pacific was on lire several times but a large force of railroad men were stationed there and mnnszed to save it Gartenlaub Pratt of the Phoenix Packing Raisin Seeding company state that their loss will be S70000 approximately approxi-mately This plant was partially covered by insurance and the stock alone was valued val-ued at 30000 Forsyths loss is placed at 12COO insured for 90000 W W Miller of the Farmers warehouse estimates his loss at 525000 The grain was all insured The loss to the Einstein warehouse will foot up to about 525000 It is Impossible to estimate tho loss to the Ice company but it will be very heavy The loss of Hobb Parsons will be between 3000 and 5000 They succeeded in saving apart a-part of theirwarehouse The Southern Pacifics loss will bo large but no figures have been given out Twenty or 25 cars were burned some of them being loaded with grain and raisins A large number of ties were also destroyed and the track was burned in a number of places A number of thirdclass sleepers were also reduced to ashes Only the low compact structure of the HobbsParsons warehouse and the fire nroof construction of the Burleigh build lag prevented the fire from sweeping the entire line of packing houses on both sides of the track The loss of the two packing houses of the district is a severe blow to Fresno It will throw hundreds of needy men and women out of employment at the only time when they usually find this class of work In abundance The loss of nearly 60 carloads of raisins in the various warehouses and packing es tablishments will not injure the raisin business in this section in the least The canning crop will bo packed and seeded by the remaining plants No action has been taken thus far toward rebuilding in tho burned district |