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Show HTTSBURG SWEPT Bf SERIOUS BLAZE Section of Retail Business District Burned, With $3,000,000 Damage, PITTSBURG, Pa., Jan. 27. Fire which swept a section of the retail business district here today destroyed the Frank Sc Seder department store, the Grand opera house, the Hilton Clothing Cloth-ing company and a dozen or more smaller small-er buildings, with a loss estimated at from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. Four firemen were seriously hurt and a dozen or more so badly injured that they were removed to hospitals. It appeared ap-peared for a time as though the fire would sweep the entire square, but heavy fire walls finally stayed the progress prog-ress of the flames, which ate through the hundreds of tons of merchandise piled in the stricken buildings. Firemen were seriously handicapped by the intense cold, it having been necessary nec-essary to carry hot water from neighboring neighbor-ing restaurants to thaw the street hydrants hy-drants before streams were available. The fire ate its way down Fifth avenue ave-nue from Bmithf ield street toward Wood street and breaking windows in buildings across Fifth avenue drove scores of guests from their rooms in the Newell .hotel. The Park building, the oldest skyscraper in the city, also was threatened, as were a number of moving picture theaters. At one time the flames leaped across Diamond street and damaged the Solomon Solo-mon department store and the Harris theater, but were soon extinquished. It then became evident that if the 'fire wall which formed the west -and south sides of the Grand opera house would hold the fire could be confined within bounds that would permit the saving of no less than half the square. The buildings were among the oldest in the business section, with the exception excep-tion of the Grand opera house, which was modern in every way The principal princi-pal losses, it is stated, will fall on the Frank & Seder company, the Hilton company and the Davis enterprises, which owned and operated the opera house. After several outbreaks during the forenoon, which threatened a further spread of the flames, fire chiefs declared de-clared shortly after 1 o'clock that the walls were holding and the fire was under un-der complete control. Revised estimates of the losses placed the total amount at about $2,500,000. Four hundred uniformed uni-formed policemen drawn from every station sta-tion in the city were on guard in the burned district. |