POOR CONSTRUCTION CAUSES DESTRUCTIVE PIER FIRES
THE GREAT CONFLAGRATIONS IN NEW YORK, AND METHODS OF PREVENTION SUGGESTED AGAINST FUTURE LOSS OF PROPERTY FROM THIS SOURCE
Fire which resulted in the destruction of property valued at approximately a million dollars, imperilled many lives, and for a time threatened to devastate several blocks of piers along the Hudson river, from Fulton street north, broke out a few minutes before 1 o'clock Saturday afternoon, July 16, on pier No. 14. While the blaze practically had been extinguished within two hours from the time it was discovered, it was one of the most spectacular fires New York and New Jersey has witnessed since the burning of the Hoboken terminal piers, just ten years ago. So rapidly did the flames spread from one end of pier No. 14 to the other, that scores of longshoremen were compelled to scramble for their lives. Several who tried to stick to their posts in unloading the craft became hemmed in by the flames and were burned so badly that they were compelled to leap into the river and take chances on being drowned, as they could not swim.
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