Show TERSON9S fiREA FIRE Business and Portion of the Residence Section i of f City in Ruins Majority of Finer Structures Devoted to Commercial Civic Educational Educa-tional and Religious Uses Burned as Also Five Hundred Residences Resi-dences Loss Ten Million Dollars Hundreds Are Homeless Paterson N J Feb 9A great fire swept through Paterson today and In Its t desolate wake are the embers and cshes of property valued at 10000000 It burned Its way through the busl less section of the city and claimed as Its own a majority of the finer structures struc-tures devoted to commercial civic educational edu-cational and religious use as well as pcorcs of houses There was but a small tribute of life and Injury to the conflagratlonbut hundreds hun-dreds were left homeless and thousands without employment RELIEF MOVEMENT A relief movement for the care of those unsheltered and unprovided for has already been organized and Mayor John Hlnchcllffe said tonight that Pat erfion would be able to care for her own without appealing to the charity of other communities and States MANUFACTURING PLANTS SAFE The great manufacturing plants of the place are safe and the community temporarily dazed by the calamity has already commenced the work of reorganization reor-ganization and restoration STA RTED AT MIDNIGHT The fire came at last midnight and was only checked after a desperate fight that lasted until late this afternoon after-noon Every city and town within I reach of Paterson sent firemen and apparatus ap-paratus to the aid of the city and It took the united efforts of them all to win the battle FANNED BY A GALE A northerly gale gave the conflagration conflagra-tion Its Impetus and carried Its burning brands to kindle the blaze afresh at other points The firemen made stand after stand before the wall of tire but were repeatedly driven back and when victory finally camo to them they were grimed and exhausted A partial list of the property destroyed follows PUBLIC BUILDINGS City hall public library old city hall police station No 1 engine house patrol stables high school school No 10 > CHURCHES First Baptist Second Presbyterian Park Avenue Baptist St Marks Episcopal Epis-copal St Josephs Roman Catholic BANKS First National Second National partially par-tially Paterson National Silk City Trust Hamilton Trust Paterson Trust CLUBHOUSES Y fC A Knlghls of Columbus Progress club St Josephs hall Hamilton Hamil-ton club OFFICE BUILDINGS Romallnc building Katz building Marshall Ball Cohn building Old Town Clock one KInne building Stevenson building TELEGRAPH COMPANIES Western Union Postal Telegraph THEATER The Garden NEWSPAPERS Th Evening News Sunday Chronicle Chroni-cle STORES Quakenbush Co dry goods Boston Store dry goods National Clothing company Globe store dry goods IvPiifs drug store Muzzy hardware nnd general merchandise Messrs Hall Bail clothiers JoUn Norwood 1 paints O Bergs grocery Wcrnten dykog grocery P H W H Shields erocore The Paterson dry goods store Jordans piano store Sauter Co pianos Fetter McNalr shoes mlJerB confectionery Tappans tea store RagowsklB millinery Brohal c Mueller shoes C E Bench automo hues Moorehcad Son clothiers Pat < Mson Gas and Electric Company Skyoss drug store Mackintosh drug store FIVE HUNDRED HOMES LOST An estimate made from n general In iwctlon of the smouldering ruins placed tho number of dwellings and apartment IIOURCI destroyed at GOO and the num her of famllloa left vUhout shelter at 3000 A recstlmatn after tho confusion Is abated may alter those figures WHERE BLAZE BROKE OU The fire began Its work or destruc Uon IT the powerhouse of the Jersey CI y Hobokcn Paterson Traction company which fronted on Broadway and extended a block to the rear of an Ilouten street I commenced in tIle car shed and wns burning fiercely when one of the employees detected It It was looping through tho roof and LIW HUM was JEtting it JnCorks and julrls when the lire apparatus came into the roadway Jre Van Houten SiVSrSS1 ° UtCn and Main street FIREM EN POWERLESS Tho firemen tried to hem the blaze blae In but it skipped across Van Houten street In one direction and Main Routen street In another and gaining vigor as It wont burned unchecked down into the business district Every piece of tIre mechanism in the city was called out but tho fro and the gale were masters EVERYTHING BURNED A great torch of flames rose high In th < air lighting up the country for many mlle and carrying f threat and warning to the people and property In UH path There wore efforts to rescue lurnllure and stock but tho speed with which the Ire moved gave he rescuers rsucra little lime Property was often moved to a plare of presumed safety only to bo 1 eventually and cntWly rearhpd destroyed Th warning to many was brief arid they were forced to Hoc scantily clad Into streets glazed with ice and swept by the leon wind Main street was soon arched over with a canopy of fire for n block and then for two blocks as the llnmet faa tened themselves upon building after building Tho firemen fought with every ev-ery resource of their craft and the Impulse Im-pulse of desperation but the flames found new avenue in Ellison and Mar Kft streets and got beyond all control Calls for relief went out to every city In this portion of the country and the jaded firemen labored on through tho hopeless hours of the morning CITY HALL WIPED OUT The city hal a magnificent structure struc-ture surmounted by a great clock tower situated on Washington Ellison and Market streets finally caught and with It went all of the splendid business bus-iness structures that surrounded Jt They made a great furnace of fire that burned with a fierce roar SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS There was a series of explosions and srores of walls fell when the fire left them strengthless Flying fire brands carried the conflagration over some buildings and around others and It therefore burned in an Irregular course These brands finally cleared the tracks of the Erie railroad and Ramapao avenue ave-nue and alighting on Straight street started another fire from which the destruction and desolation wrought was nearly as great as in the other SECOND GREAT FIRE This second great fire started at the angle of Park avenue and Washington street and swept almost unchecked until un-til on these two thoroughfares there was no more fuel On the righthand side of Market street it encountered Sand Hill cemetery as a barrier to check It but on the lefthand side at Carroll street It claimed St Josephs church a great classic stone building HEROIC WORK OF FIREMEN I wntJ on this side that the lire departments de-partments did the most and heroic work They fell back only when they had to and when the natural obstacle ntcrposed they Bclzod their chance and stopped the fire 0 FINAL FIGHT MADE The final and one of the most desperate des-perate fights of the day occurred in midafternoon back in the first fire area at the Hamilton club situated at the corner of Church and Ellison streets The handsome clubhouse I caught and the exhausted firmen were rallied around it They were anxious to save the structure and realized that allure meant the fire might take new headway among the properties adjoining adjoin-Ing The building was doomed but u torrent of water kept the fire to the premises Tho four walls of the club lousRstoodrbut thereof collapsedand the interior S cohiplctely burned out GREAT COLUMNS OF FIRE Paterson lpa If a valioy and the con fiagratior was animposing spectacle from the hills that wall it in Columns of flame climbed high In the air and shed their light for miles Hundreds of persons hurried into the city before daylight to watch the work of destruc ton at closer range and when the day came thousands more Joined them THOUSANDS VIEW BLAZE The fire became a great popular spectacle spec-tacle that claimed patrons from New York and every outlying town in New Jersey They crowded the regular rains of the railways operating through here and compelled the dispatching dis-patching of extra trains Once In the city they crowded around the firemen and at times hampered their work Poles Po-les lines were Impossible and through the day they poured In an endless stream through the desolate streets Great pinnacles of ruined brick stood In every street but the crowd passed under them of unmindful the warnings of the police and firemen THIEVES AND LOOTERS Later came the thieves and looters but there was not much pillaging Under Un-der orders from Gov Murphy several companies of the Fifth Infanfry and National guard assembled at their ar rnorlcs and were held as a reserve mores force The police force deputy sher ills hundreds of special watchmen and firemen united In protecting property and when night came a grim order clearing the streets was Issued by the city and county authorities Despite the precautions of the authorities there was much confusion on tho streets at night CITY IN DARKNESS The destruction of wires left the city in darknogs save for tho dull glow I given off by the embers in two great fire areas Hundreds of belated visitors visit-ors crowded around the depots and struggled in the dark for places in the overcrowded trains The street railway rail-way system was also severely Injured through the burning of Its wires I AREA OF FIRE The area of destruction toots up roughly twentyfive blocks From Main street to Paterson between Van Houton and Market street there Is little left On the block bounded by Main Ellison Washington and Market streets not a single building excepting that of the Paterson Savings Institution stands All alonE tho west side of Main street property is wiped out and on the eastside east-side oleo from Market to Van Houten strctU Along the south side of Broadway Broad-way between Washington and Church streets great damage has been done REDUCED TO ASHES 0 I Vanhoutcn street Is reduced tb smouldering debris so far as buildings are concerned for some distance Ellison Elli-son street suffered from the neighborhood neighbor-hood of Prospect street on its north side a far a Church street On the south sldo of this street there is widespread wide-spread ruin from a short distance west of Main street to the Parsonage of the Second Presbyterian church near Paterson Pater-son street Market street is a pile of ruins from Main street to the Market street church on the north side and on the south side SCENE OF DEVASTATION Nowhere was thcsccnc of devastation more marked than north of Erie In the district bounded by Sixteenth avenue and Market street There was simply nothing but ashes left to tell that a and of the thlt busy populous section te city had ever existed On WashingtOn Street between Broadway and Market streets there Is nothing left Church street Is wiped out on its west side b tween Ellison and Market street a It Is on the cast side OLD LANDMARKS GONE I wan In Its newest and best built portions that Paterson Buffered though some of the property now lying in blackened ruins had an Interest which came with age and usage The trolley car stables where tlc flames began had In their time been a skating rink and also the scene of nojUIcal rallies and other popular gatherings The First Baptist church had a history all Its own Its origin running back for a century cen-tury To old city hall user for a police station was also a landmark MRS HOBARTS HOME SAFE Neither the home of John W Grlggs cxAttorneyGeneral of the United States nor that of Mrs Garret A Hobart Ho-bart widow of VlccPrcsldent Hobart was harmed by the fire both being well out of its path The cost of the fire ha not yet been counted with any degree of accuracy and it will be several days before there can be a definite tabulation of losses and insurance 1 ESTIMATING LOSSES In the confusion of tho day and the rigorous guarding of the burned districts dis-tricts at night it was impossible to locate lo-cate a majority of the heavier sufferers The estimate of 10000000 will probably cover the destruction broadly and a group of city officials who went over the city this evening were Inclined to scale that flguTc dowH To betwren 7000000 and 8000000 for actual property prop-erty losses Their estimate made no calculation for loss on account of suspension sus-pension of business Losses In many instances notably In the case of the trust companies will depend upon how vaults and safes stood the test of the freONE ONE DEATH REPORTED One death was reported as a possible outcome of the conflagration a Mrs Brown who It was Id was over SO years old and who was removed from her residence 18 Broadway Just two doors from where the fire started In the car sheds She was taken to the residence of a fIend nearby shortly after midnight and died about an hour later I was said that her death was hastened by the excitement consequent on her hasty removal to a place of safety SCORES OF PEOPLE HURT Scores of persons were hurt and burned but the loss of life Is not thought to be great Many persons are reported to be missing but In the excitement ex-citement and fright most of them are supposed to be separated from their families and friends Reuben Isllb while serving coffee to the exhausted firemen was hit on the head by a Calling beam and it 10 doubtful 11 he will recover He was carried by the firemen the cred away fremen as they made their retreat < from the doomed schoolhouse FIREMEN FATALLY INJURED There was a hasty assembling of the fire underwriters at Newark today and efforts were made to obtain from Paterson Pat-erson n idea of the losses then I seems that the loss will Call largely upon companies which are foreign to the Slate ot New Jersey The four Newark companies the Firemens Merchants Newark FIre and American of Newark with the aid of maps of the city this afternoon made up an estimate esti-mate of their losses They are not badly hit as their payments will not be more than 40000 in any case From these figures the amounts scale down to 12000 making but a comparatively small amount In the aggregate Losses are likely to fall largely upon the Insurance companies of Now York city Thc general expression Is that Insurance carried In New York city by Paterson will aggregate between 53000000 and 3500000 This of courw 1t merely an estimate a no papers are available which would disclose the actual ac-tual amount of policies |