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Show BLAZE DAMAGES HOBOKEN PIERS TIMELY SHIFTING OF WIND PRE. VENTS DESTRUCTION OF NEW YORK WATER FRONT Heavy Loss of Property Result of Big Fire; Largest Ship Afloat Was In Flames; No One Injured In Fire Fighting New York Shifting of the wind early Wednesday night saved the entire en-tire Hohoken water front from whnt might have been the most serious conflagration con-flagration in Ms history. As it was. dnniago estimated from $700,000 to $1,000,000 was caused by the fire, which broke out on army pier No. 5 and rapidly spread in all directions, di-rections, at one time setting the forward for-ward portion of the giant U. S. S. Leviathan, largest ship afloat, in flames. Adjoining, on pier No. 4, were 5000 flng draped caskets of American soldier dead awaiting trail fer to relatives rel-atives or nearest of kin. For a time it looked as if Ibis pier, loo. would be consumed, but a slackening of the wind blew the flames northward toward to-ward the Leviathan and pier No. 6. At the height of the danger ambulances am-bulances rushed the coffins to a safety safe-ty zone, surrounded by American soldiers sol-diers from the Thirteenth infantry barracks. The army transport Whenton, which, for the Inst year, has brought the soldier dead from France, was towed out into the Hudson and anchored. an-chored. No one was injured during the two nnd one-half hours of fire fighting that brought out every available piece of apparatus from Hoboken, Jersey City and surrounding Hudson county cities. P'ire boats from New York lined the wnter front, pumping streams Into the blazing piers. Fire lines were established at th e Deleware, Lackawanna and Western railway station, which early in the evening was reported to be afire Thousands lined the ropes, watching the blaze, which in spectacular infer-est infer-est has had no equal in the last decade. de-cade. Flames lighted the entire district and great clouds of snoke drifted down over the harbor and then swung backward over Jersey City. It was feared first that the Leviathan Levia-than was a total loss. From the Manhattan Man-hattan side of the river the giant funnels could be seen apparently in the center p-i-ils in :i r-n-i'ih-'-n of flames. Fil-r !u;a-:r. hnwo.er. which worked their w.-iy into the p!or s'ip ; played n continuous stream on the shipping board's "Elephant" and saved sav-ed her from destruction. So threatening was the fire that at one time soldiers were called upon K remove mail from the t'nfred State? postoffiee which seemed directly in the path of the flames. Apartment dwellers In several hu-f structures in the vicinity fled, taking j belongings with them. Lots nf army stores on pier 5 are i a total loss, although soldiers worked I franticnllv to save them. ' ' |
