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Show ISAMPAN Thirty Thousand Persons Per-sons Are Kendered Homeless Osaka, Japan, Jan. 16 A score of fires, which broke out at 1 o'clock this morning, swept across the southern south-ern half of this city, fanned by a strong wind. The fire was not under control until late In the afternoon, when, according to official figures, 5,-2GS 5,-2GS buildings had been destroyed and 30,000 persons rendered homeless During the first four hours tho flames consumed more than 1,300 houses. Osaka, the Venice of the East, has a population of about a million, and is rated one of the moBt Important manufacturing and commeicial cities of Japan. It is located on the island of Hondo, on the two banks of the river Yodo, and Is visited bv travelers travel-ers for Its Buddhist teple and its picturesque pic-turesque canals, spanned by 1,300 stone and bamboo bridges. It has been the scene of frequent conflagrations, mainly because 1 13 buildings are mostly flimsy bamboo or wooden structures, built close to each other and very inflammable. An official report of the damage In the city's great flro oC August 1, 1309 gave the number of buildings destroyed destroy-ed as 11.308. The loss of life was limited to a single person, but the property loss ran Into the millions. Another hie: flro In Japan in recent years was the Hakodate disaster of August, 1907, which cost $15,000,000. Last vear there was a conflagration in Toklo which destroyed that cltv's famous Yoshiwara or tenderloin, with a loss pf $3,000,000 oo |