THE BURNING OP DAWSON CITY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11570, 11 July 1899, Page 1

THE BURNING OP DAWSON CITY.

The Canadian mail, which arrived a few days ago, brought details of the terrible fire which swept over Dawsou City, the metropolis ofl Kondyke, on April 26 last. The expected has happened. A-great fire, long threatened, has overwhelmed Dawson City, and nothing is left of the centre of the metropolis save a heau of costly ashes. Fortunately, the "big warehouses of the commercial companies escaped, but 111 bnildiugs, large and ■=mall, were destroyed ere the fire burned itself out The fire wr.s caused, as was its predecessor, which all but obliterated the town, by tbe upsetting of a lamp in a disorderly resort. The loss is estimated at over • J-,000,000d01, but fortunately any fatal* ■'yEarly the following morning L. F, Humes, son of ex-Mayor Humos, Seattle, iccompanied by Thomas P. Re'llv, Government messenger, and a companion named Tokales, started for the out?ide with the news over a trail that tiie najority asserted meant certain death. They also carried the rpport of tlie just ;losed Royal Commission, and after Mich idventurc3 as few men survive, re«c!.cd Victoria on the night cf May 20, tiiuir passage up the trails having been mae'e with mounted police relays and the best dogs that the force could put at their disposal. In many places they found open water, and were forced to pick their way through the wilderness ; yet they did it, and made Skagway in eighteen days. The fire commenced in tbe very heart of the business section, at 3 a.m., in a cabin close to the Opera-house on the water-front strip. An abortive attempt was made to extinguish the blaze before the alarm was sounded, and the delay thus caused gave the fire hea'way. When the fire brigade turned our, trie/ found the conflagration beyond their power to Bubside. A strong north I wind was blowing, and the fire travelled in sheets rather than Harms, [t swept all the buildings in its way along tbe main thorough far?, ■lown to and including Donohue and Smith's establishment, .the razed area including all the water-front buildings abreast of the same blocks Within half an hour the fire had crossed the street twice, and burned through and spread to Second-street, every important building in what is known as the business section being eaten up. The firemen, after the first hilf hour's work, accepted the inevitable, abandoning the endeavour to extinguish the mad torrent of flame, and devoting themselves to the saving of property in buildings a 9 yet comparatively removed from the sweep of the fire. Not a single building waa left from Timin's Royal Cafe to and opposite tbe Fairview Hotel. In this district were all the structures erected in 1897 and 1898. Not a pioneer building is left. When the obliteration of the town arpeared ordained, the citizens beranie panic-stricken, and even when they could have been of some service ru'hed madly towards the hills at the back of the town, stopping to stand iv r.etnfi'd horror, gazing idly upon the destruction of their all. Among the most prominent of the firms burnt out were the Bank of British North America, M'Lellan and M'Feeley, of Vancouver' and Dawson, Parsons Produce Company of Winnipeg, the tfoyal Cafe, Douohueland Smith, the Aurora Saloon, the Bodega, the Maddan House, the Victoria Hotel, the M'Donald block, the California Exchange. There were no insurances . The stocks of the commercial com. panics will be severely taxed in meeting the demand for necessities, all the private sloies of food and clothing having been totally destroyed within the radius of the fire. It is impossible that any pretentious effort at rebuilding will be made until navigation opens, for there is not 3000 ft of lough lumber in. the district. Materials of all kinds are equally scarce, the hardware stores, carrying axes, nails, sashes, doors, glass fcr win lows, etc., having been almost the first to fsll, and doors being quoted at 35d0l to 40Jol each, with lOdol extra for locks, in very limited quantity the morning after the fire. Provisions were not advanced in price, nor clothing, the companies being determined apparently to do all in their power to relieve tbe general distress. Altogether tha burned area comprised quite three-quarters of Dawson. Thp two news-bringers say that before the ashes were cool miners wera washing them on the site of the banks to recover gold .