WHOLE DISTRICTS DEVASTATED BY FLAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 94, 20 April 1906, Page 5

WHOLE DISTRICTS DEVASTATED BY FLAMES.

SOME OF THE BIGGER BUILDINGS DESTROYED

SEA OVERFLOWS IN NORTH-EASTERN HARBOUR.

LONDON, April 19. Through the destruction by fire of the telegraph office and all the news, paper offices, information is still fragmentary. Tbe two-roof small towers of the City Hall, which cost 7,000,000 dollars (£1,450,000), collapsed. The post office building was completely shattered. The Valencia Hotel and Kingsley's lodginghonse both collapsed, and in each eighty persons lost their lives. A great department store fell, burying the caretakers. Up to eight o'clock last night the fires had extended over eight square miles, involving several hundred city blocks. The damage done up to that time by fire was at least 100,000,000 dollars (22 million sterling). The district surrounded by Vallego, Howard East, and Sansome streets, embracing almost the entire wholesale district, has been clean swept by the flames. The district bounded by Market, Eighth, and Folson streets also has been devastated. This area includes the majority of the finest and moot substantial buildings. The Palace Hotel has been destroyed by fire. The water supply having been lost, the firemen are powerless, and the flames are leaping all barriers, and spreading from block to block. All the buildings of Lower Market-street, the main thoroughfare of tho city, have been destroyed. The chief of the fire brigade was killed in the fall of a building. .Among the buildings destroyed finally by fire are the following:— San Francisco "Call" offices. San Francisco "Examiner" offices. San Francisco "Chronicle" offices. VVestern Union offices. Post and Telegraph offices. The Grand Opera- House. The Pacific States Telephone Exchange. The Rialto Store. The Mutual Life office. / The Anglo-California Bank. The Fishmarket. The Palace Hotel. Many of the principal buildings at Oakland, across the bay from Sail Francisco, were damaged. The sea overflowed between Suisun and Benicia, in the north-eastern bend of San Francisco harbour. A mile and a-half of track of the Southern Pacific railway has disappeared under water, and a crowded passenger train barely escaped. The earthquake was severely felt in Nevada. The telegraph companies have been forced to open at Oakland. N :. St. Igns.ce Cathedral is in flames. Stanford University (the foremost higher educational institution in California), was practically demolished. There has been much loss Of life sad damage at Santa Rosa, and Salines hat #uflertd considerably. ''__,'"