FIRE SWEEPS TOWN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18534, 19 October 1923, Page 9

FIRE SWEEPS TOWN.

HAVOC IN A I FOR lA.

■ BERKELEY ■ IN RUINS.

SCENE OF DEVASTATION.

' A brief cable message' from Vancouver on September 17 ; staled that as ;i the result of fierce forest fires / two / students of the University of California were killed, and. hundreds of houses were destroyed in the town of Berkeley,; California. .Terrible forest fires also invaded the .mining town of . El Dorado, and its /■ destruction was almost complete. /■:■ ./■/'.:'.•;■•.;'.:■/-/ Advices now. to hand by mail show that in Berkeley wild confusion followed the first onslaught ,of ; the flames. Terrorstricken women seized personal belongings and fled through menacing lanes of fire. ■■. Furniture was '. piled. up into vans and automobiles. Household goods were piled in the streets, ( only to later burn. One aged woman was seen staggering through the fire zone, her arms ' filled with pre--1 served fruit. Another woman seized .an. armful! of phonograph records and fled. Afterward, she said, she did not know what she was doing. People '. acted from instinct.,.. . Hundreds of persons ' tried to save their homes by claying garden 'hoses' on the roofs. But "they ; could , not remain long, !so intense was the heat. At 'i the i : last moment they' had to '. flee for. their lives. , In the confusion women fainted and the search was constant for missing loved ones. . • ..-■' ~ ■ The flames advancing through the thick growth of trees on the north-east slope of the ridge and topping the crest, struck south-eastward through the residential districts of Cragmont. . • " ./ ' The fire, at'mercy of the wind, played tricks. At times .it- skipped; a house or turned: sharply to right angle's. In some cases one side of a' street was left a ruin, while on the' opposite .side only ' the paint was scorched. ' '- '.-. Two blocks surrounded *• by Euclid Avenue, Ridge Road, .Hearst and Laloma Avenues, were left intact, although fire raged on three sides. ' The fire was checked at last \at the edge of the university ' grounds.! , . . . \i y Firemen Helpless. So rapid was the advance of the flames and so widespread was the area involved, that firemen were virtually helpless. The water, supply and the pressure in, ,tht. mains are said to have been wholly inadequate,., and firemen were constantly / forced to retreat with their apparatus be- I fore the uncontrolled blast.' - 4 ', Reinforcements of * apparatus arid' men were rushed from San Francisco and Oakland. ? All buildings at the ; university campus were immediately thrown open to the thousands of refuges. , - Many persons suffered from "■■> sever£ burns and other injuries, and the damage amounted to million?, of dollars. >•>"'; '>■ Describing the s'-ae> the day after the fire,.' a ,&■;*< Francisco paper says:—-/. ?;.%■ With hundreds of its # finest homes .destroyed, thousands of its' best, families homeless,? *nd - havoo wrought by fire and 'wind running ■ into the millions, Berkeley was up early to-day, taking inventory. / .. Half -the, city was; strewn, with .the wreckage of the conflagration, which- would probably have destroyed all of Berkeley but for a sudden : change the wind, , seemingly miraculous. ' , , .--.': . A City of Refugees. Berkeley, at'an- early hour to-day, was a i city of < refugees, of - homeless families, , of college students looking for new .board- . ing ■ bouses. ■; ■• "/":''''-'.'. '„.'•/i;.. : .:'■''•;;' , ' In '"•■ Stephens Union on the campus, in the headquarters ;of : the : Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, in the' hotels,;. and hun-, dreds of homes, and , all over '/the/ university ; campus, burned-out v families '•■were ;, to be. found. •::•'./■'.i/--/'/;;/■■'/:.!'■'/ ''■;■,'•. -->

Many were nursiiiig'wounds and small hurts. Mostly they were taking it su> ally.•;-:v A. good many, veterans, of.. San Francisco's holocaust "of 1906, even managed to " smile : cheerfully and say ;it might have > been worse. ~ ■■ ; Ironically, ' a largo real ,/.; estate Bign stood, in front of ;a'; mass of charred ruins that a few hours 'before \ had ,bean,'a -group of ; beautiful new homes v" For!' Sale;*' f! y- ; Ruin '■■ for; sale! j; There / are plenty of . them /in Berkeley to-day. 'V. '::' '■' ;;Atop a concrete and ; brick fence post the ruins 'of , what , had; been a splendid mantel clock, now charred and falling to pieces, stood. < : A ' couple of sightseers > stopped to inspect it. ~ ' '„, ' I !;" Good lord cried one, dramatically, the thing's] stopped.'*/ >■■■':■;..'.'..';',• /-Y £'&,'::<?■■ ■:.:. On- the face ofs the ; clock, wedged'in by the hands, a \ business card had been left. "By the flare ' a dozen gas'storches 1 one could read ;/ " Property of H. A. Eveleth, now at 2830, Hilgard Avenue." Gardens, of iibai'se, were, destroyed, trees : ruined. • ,But,. except for •a? fallen monarch herm and ; there,' the trees are all standing to-day. They * are < flinging their charred branches against the■: sky, , as though in heroic /' defiance Yof •". disaster, I their limbs ' beckoning ;; back ; the /families who fled. - i