Newspaper Page Text
EXTRA
VOL. X\
BEAUTIFUL HOMES DYNAMITED
Thousands Are Homeless; Still Fighting Flames
By DUDLEY GLASS.
Not since the Sherman blaze, per
haps, has Atlanta witnessed such
scenes as those in the flre-swept dis
trict Monday afternoon. There was
a reign of panic which not only caused
women and children to run screaming
through the streets, but made men
rush into burning homes to save the
most trivial of effects. One of those
favorite movie scenes of the villagers
fleeing from the flames was the only
thing like it. ;
The fire at first swept through the
negro houses, small frame shacks,
which filled the middle of those blocks
in the Decatur street “Darktown”
neighborhod, and the denizens of the
cabins, dragging out what they could,
ran up and down the streets walling
at the top of their voices. Negro
women, locked in each others’ arms,
shrieked in despair as they saw the
flames approach their homes. Chil
dren were getting under foot, dodging
flying automobiles, getting lost, and
adding to the general turmoil.
Spectators Rush Home.
As the flames approached the fine
residence sections of Jackson street
and North Boulevard the thousands
who had gone down to watch the fire,
more or less disinterestedly, began to
hurry back home to save what they
could. They used buckets and garden
hose to wet the shingle roofs of their
ihomes, but this did lttle good. A
'blazing shingle, floating from some
‘burning roof, would sail high in the
air, cross a whole block or two, and
_settle down on another shingle-roofed
house. That meant another fire, un
less the inhabitants were quick
enough in getting water on the roof.
There were half a dozen such fires,
widely separated, all going at once.
Sidewalks and streets were piled
high with furniture, and every wagon
and automobile in sight was pressed
into service to haul them to safety—
anywhere out of the fire zone. Men
and women were dragging heavily
loaded trunks up the sidewalks and
almost fainting from exhaustion,
Beg for Help.
Women stood in their doors and
Continued on Page 2, Column 5. l
THEINJURED., |
Followine {)= the list of fire-injured |
patients reg.stered at Grady Hospital
at 5:30 o'clock: |
Howard Herbert, manager Regent
Theater, ill from smoke and inhaling
flames. |
G. C. Maddox, engineer Fire Com
pany No. 11, prostrated by heat. i
Tom Warner, No. 515 Capitol ave- |
inue, right arm fractured by falling|
chimney. |
LV. P. Warren, No. 86 Bryant
# eet, stunned by falling timbers. i
*® Leßoy Scott, negro, aged 4, run
down by ambulance. |
Nelson Vaughan, No. 114 North
Sackson street, injured in fall, fleeing
e,
P Mrs. M. J. Vaughan, No. 114 Norths
Jackson street, ill from shock.
Copyright, 1906,
By The Georgian Co,
Two food stations for the fire
sufferers will be open tonight
and as long afterward as neces
sary. Bread and coffee will be
distributed.
Applicants, white and black,
will be welcomed at these places:
The Auditerium, at Courtland
and Gilmer streets.
The Masonic Temple, Peachtree
and Cain streets.
Preparations for sleeping quar
ters at the Auditorium were under
way.
The relief situation is being
kandled by the Civilian Relief
Committee of the Atlanta Red
Cross Society, Joseph C. Logan,
chairman.
Mr. Logan’s headquarters have
been removed to the Auditorium,
where he will receive offers of aid,
in money, rooms, use of automo
biles and wagons, and everything
which can help.
Judge Ernest Kontz and E. H.
Goodhart are in charge of the food .
stations.
W. W. Orr, chairman of the
Associated Charities, urges that
all persons who can cars for fami
lies whose homes were lost in the
fire offer their services at once.
He asks that they communicate
with him or his offl)::e in the Gould
Building.
“The need is urgent, and we are
depending upon the citizens of
Atfanta to do their part, as they
always do,” Mr. Orr said. “There
will Ko hundreds of families who
wlill need sheiter Monday night
and Tuesday, and until perma
nent relief can be given.”
Thousands of negroes and others
lost everything they had in the
fire this afternoon, Their household
goods were destroyed or lost in the
confusion. Théy are homeless, pen
niless, hungry.
The Red Crosu Society, through
Chairman J. C. Logan, of its civilan
relief committee, this afternoon called
for gifts to aid these poor. They must
be cared for until they can find new
homes. These gifts must come
quickly.
Send your contributions by check
or telephone at once to The Georgian
or to L.ee Ashcraft, chairman of the
Red Cross finance committee.
“He gives twice who gives quickly.”
The Atlanta Red Cross Society bhe
gan its work of relief long before the
great fire had reached its height. It
was preparing to place hundreds of
cots in the Auditorium-Armory for
the use of the negroes who had lost
their homes. and expected these cots
to be available for tonight.
Within ten minutes after The Geor
gian extra announcing the call for re
lief funds had reached the streets The
Georgian began receiving contribu
tions and offers of rooms for the
homeless.
Colonel W. H. H. Phelps sent $1 and
said he had a furnished room to give.
W. E. Hannum called in person with
a check for $lO.
Dozens of offers of rooms began
pouring in by telephone.
The Atlanta Reo Company, No. 3280
Peachtree street, C. W. DuPree, man
ager, offered 20,000 feet of floor space
for the storage of furniture saved
from the fire.
. Glenn Mosley, No. 15 Rocky Ford
avenue, Kirkwood, offered room for
four persons.
THE
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Scene at Edgewood avenue and Hilliard street shortly after the fire began. The blaze started about a block south of this point
BULLETINS FROM SCENE OF FIRE
Out-of-town fire companies and engines began arriving in At
lanta after 4 o’clock and lent their efforts to fighting the blaze.
Companies had arrived from Griffin, Marietta, Decatur, Kirkwood
and East Point. Macon telegraphed that a pump company had left
on a special train at 5 o’clock and would arrive at 7:30 o’clock.
Captain J. S. Fretwell was in charge. Augusta sent two automo
bile engines, which left at 4:35 o’clock on a special train, expecting
to make the run by 9 o’clock. Newnan also wired that a company
was on the way.
Dynamiting the houses on the south side of Ponee Deleon
avenue between Jackson street and North Boulevard began about
b o’clock. Officers and men of the Fifth Infantry handled this dan
gerous Work.
Late in the afternoon the authorities at Fort McPherson sent
most of the 2,500 ‘‘officer rookies’’ of the Citizens’ Training Camp
to the fire, equipped with buckets. They began fighting the ad
vance of the fire by mounting roofs, forming bucket brigades and
wetting down the shingles as a protection against sparks. The
King Hardware Company furnished hundreds of metal buckets for
this work. Citizens also were equipped with buckets and aided in
the old-fashioned fire-fighting methods.
’ At 5 o’clock the flames had reached the edge of Ponce De-
ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, MAY 22, 1917.
Leon avenue on North Jackson street, and in North Boulevard they
had progressed nearly that far. The wind was northeast, and the
flames generally followed that direction, with the strip included in
about two blocks. Firemen were dynamiting houses. Many homes
were left unharmed behind the front of the flames, the brick
apartment houses and other substantial structures stopping them.
But blazing shingles were carried far beyond these barriers, start
ing new fires in the next block.
Soldiers from the Seventeenth Regiment and the Fifth Georgia
Infantry were forming a cordon around the fire zone at 6 o’clock
and barring curiosity-seekers in an effort to protect them from the
dynamite explosions and to insure order. The Seventeenth Regi
ment and the 2,500 men of the Officers’ Training camp were placed
at the disposal of the city authorities by Colonel Noyes, command
ing the post. One-half were sent to the city and the other half held
in reserve to relieve the others later.
The fine homes of Dave Wilder, Fred Law and Lee Hagan, in
Ponce DeLeon avenue, had been dynamited at 6 o’clock. The
homes of James L. Mayson, City Attorney; Dr. W. L. Gilbert,
County Commissioner; Tom Wilson, County Engineer, and Fred
Mayfield, Chief Deputy Sheriff, had been burned.
LFIRST EDITION]
A Paper for Atlanta, Georgia,
and the South
ON TRAINS, 5 CENT 3,
3 CENTS St
Early Monday night the greatest fire in At
lanta’s history had reached Ponce Del.eon avenue between
North Jackson street and North Boulevard, and the hand
some homes on both sides of Ponce Del.eon were blazing.
The firemen were making a gallant stand here to use the
wide street as a barrier, and the buildings were being dyna
mited. J. R. Smith, the real estate man, was leading in this
work, in which officers and men of the Fifth Regiment were
working bravely.
The Ponce Del Leon Pharmacy and apartment house, at
Ponce Del.eon and Boulevard, caught fire and was dyna
mited.
The flames were spreading eastward out Ponce DeLeon
had swept through the dry trees in the old amusement park
opposite the baseball grounds and were approaching the
great Ford automobile factory.
On the west side, between Jackson street and Peach
tree, the fire had not advanced so far, having reached North
avenue. It was burning back in Forrest avenue, up to a
point between Fort and Hilliard streets.
| The chemical wagon from East Point arrived, manned
with its own firemen and a detachment of soldiers from Fort
McPherson.
| Sweeping north along the lane between Jackson and North
Boulevard, eating away the handsome homes as it went, the flames
bit their way into the heart of the city’s most beautiful residence
section.
The fire area at 4:20 o'clock embraced nearly all the territory
between Edgewood and Forrest avenues and Boulevard and Fort
north of Edgewood, and was raging around the J. K. Orr shoe fac
tory and the Trio Laundry cleaning works south of Edgewood, to
Decatur, between Yonge street, west to Fort. Approximately
‘twenty blocks had been burned.
The magnitude of the fire was the
result of an Inadequate force of fire
men when it started. This was be
cause of the fatal coincidence of two
other destructive fires which began |
almost simultaneously. Flames which |
swept a block on East Fair street and |
a fire in West End, were demnndlng|
the desperate efforts of most of the|
city's force when the alarm came |
that a fire was raging in the bluek’
bounded by Decatur, Fort and Hil
llard streets and Edgewood avenue.
| Leaps Edgewood Avenue.
The force of firemen was limited,
‘because of the demands in the other
two parts of the city. The principal
effort was made to prevent spread of
the flre to the warehouse of the
‘Sklnner Transfer and Storage Com
pany, but it soon caught. The flames,
leaping beyond control, began to get
away from she fighters,
In two places on Edgewodd avenue
it jumped across the street to the
sun-dried roofs of cottages. Every
shingle that caught a spark burst
into flame. The fire spread north
ward and eastward.
By an odd trick the flames leaped
over the houses on the edge of the
blocks, striking at structures in the
middle. This made the work of fire
men more than ever difficult, and
helped the spread of the flaames.
Spreading north, the flames swept
out Hilliard and Housten streets,
licking their way theough negro
NO. 249.
dwellings toward netghborhoods of
more substantial residences.
A path two blocks wide was cut.
Across Auburn avenue and ‘Old Wheat
street it swept, traveling rapidly to
ward Irwin street. At Irwin it was
checked for only a little while, leap
ing onward across the intervening
space into another block, and bearing
north upon Houston street,
Eats Way Up North Jackson.
Trees, telephone poles, fences and
everything else began to go before
the flames. The residence of W. F.
Slaton, No. 142 North Jackson, was
burning at 8 o'clock, and was be
lizved to be doomed.
At that time flremen began to face
the onrushing fire, instead of try
ing to save the burning structures.
As the minutes passed, and the flames
cut their way toward the residences
in Atlanta’'s beautifuli North Side the
great struggle was to prevent furthep
loss. g
Among the maustrial plants in tu:
path of the fire, ope for salvation 4
which scemed slim, were the Stocl{o';i
dard Dry Cleaning and Dyeing Com=
pany's plant, a two-story frame
building at No. 109 Fort street; the
Trio Steam Laundry, a two-story
brick building, at Hilliard street and
Edgewood avenue, and the Pura Was
ter plant, at No. 103 Fort street. =
The fire started near the J. K. Orp
shoe (ao:tori'_i which for a time was
threatened. However the wlndowdm
doors of the great plant were -+