THE CALAMITOUS FIRE AT PHILADELPHIA.

Press, Volume VII, Issue 802, 25 May 1865, Page 3

THE CALAMITOUS FIRE AT PHILADELPHIA.

[From the Philadelphia Bulletin, February B.] The most terrible conflagration that has occurred in Philadelphia since the great fire of July, 18&0, took place this morning. \. Before proceeding to narrate the horrors of th> calamity we will describe the locality where the dread tragedy was enacted. Ninth-street, below Washing-ton-street, is lined principally with three-story brick dwellings, that are occupied mainly by respectable families of limited means, the houses renting, we should judge, for from two hundred to two hundred and fifty doliars a year. The first-street below Wash-imrton-street is Elsworth, and the next Federal, joih which streets had, in that vicinity, about the same class of dwellings upon them as those upon Ninthstreet. On the south-west corner of Ninth'and Washington-streets there is a coal-yard belonging to Mesars. Daily and Porter ; and immediately west of this upon Washington street, was an open lot, upon which Blackburn and Co. had between 2000 and 3000 barrels of coal oil stored, oa account of various owners.

This morning, at about half-past two o'clock, a fire broke out among this oil, and the flames spread through the greater part of it with almost as much rapidity as though it had been gunpowder. About. 2000 barrels of this inflammable material were soon ablaze, and sending up into the sky a huge column of flame. The families in the neighborhood sprang from their bed?, and without stopping to secure a single article of clothing, rushed into the streets, that were covered with snow and slush. Those that were most prompt to escape from their threatened homes got off with their lives ; but those nearest the spot where the conflagration first commenced, and who were not prompt to escape from their houses, were met by a terrible scene. The blazing oil that escaped from the burning barrels poured over into Ninth street and down *o Federal, filling the entire street with a lake of fire, and igniting the houses upon both sides of Ninth street for two squares, and carrying devastation into Washington, Ellsworth, and Federal streets, both above and below Ninth street. An eve-witnessdescribes the fierce body of flame as resembling a screw in its progress ; it first whirled up Ninth street, and then the fiery torrent washed down the street for a distance of two squares, and then back again at the caprice of the wind, destroying every living thing that came in ite way* burning dwellings and their contents as they were so much (straw, and even splintering into fragments the paving-stones in the street with the intense heat.

Fully five squares of bouses, had they been placed in a row, were on fire at once, and the scene was one to make the stoutest heart quail. People escaping from their blazing homes with no covering but their night-clothes j parents seeking for their children, and terrified little ones looking for safety in the horrid turmoil, were all dreadful enough, but there were still more terrible scenes witnessed. Men, women and children were Ktewdly roasted alive in the streets.

Nearly every house from Washington street to Federal, a distance of two squares, is burned, with all their contents, nothing but the bare walls remaining this morning. The same scene of .ruin is presented on Washington, Ellsworth, and Federal streets, both above and below Ninth street. The entire number of buildings burned is about forty-seven.