SWEPT BY FIRE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 248, 15 July 1932, Page 9

SWEPT BY FIRE

Heavy Damage on Coney Is. THOUSANDS HOMELESS (Rec. July 14, 6.45 pan.). New York, July 14. Coney Island, the United States’s best-known seaside resort, has been swept by fire. The damage is estimated at 2,000,000 dollars. Four solid blocks were devastated. Hundreds of bathhouses, restaurants, amusement places and apartment houses were destroyed. Several thousand persons are homeless. Nearly 100 were injured. Coney Island is about nine miles southeast of Manhattan Island, New York City, and lies within the limits of Brooklyn. The island, which is only 5 miles long, varying from a quarter of a mile to a mile in width, is the most popular seashore resort of the United States. At the western extremity is the district known as Sea Gate, an exclusive residential area having a large number of summer homes, and the handsome club-house of the Atlantic Yacht Club. A shore drive connects the area to West Brighton, the popular amusement centre, to which the name Coney Island has come to be more especially applied. Its amusement parks, side-shows, cafes, and dancing halls have made the island a well-known resort. There are a public bathing beach and bath house, and the Coney Island boardwalk. extending from Sea Gate eastward for about 13,000 feet