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TERRITORIAL ENTERPRISE

Wednesday . . . . . . . . . . March 14, 1883

A BIG FIRE

PIPER'S OPERA HOUSE DESTROYED.

A Very Hot Fire, and the Whole North End of the Town Endangered—The Fire Finally Confined to the Opera House Group of Buildings, Though Many Adjoining Buildings Were Very Badly Scorched.

Yesterday morning, about 5 o'clock, a fire broke out in Piper's Opera House, which laid the building in ruins within an hour. The saloon adjoining the theater on the east—also the property of Mr. Piper—and two buildings to the northward, fronting on B street, were left total wrecks. Several frame dwellings to the west and south of the theater had their fronts badly charred, all the windows broken out and their interiors flooded with water.

The Opera House was an immense pile of timbers and lumber, and once it was wholly wrapped in flames the heat in all directions for a great distance was intense. But for the fact that it has been raining and sleeting during the early part of the night, the falling cinders would have fired everything in the vicinity. Indeed, had there been the least wind, there would have been seen an immense conflagration—one which would have swept the whole northern part of the city.

HOW THE FIRE STARTED

Is not certainly known, but the indications are that it was the work of an incendiary. It was first seen by "Old Dave," an old sailor, who has for years been employed about the Delta Saloon, and whose room is on A street. In going home from the Delta (which is on C street), Dave saw the fire, and raised an alarm. Soon after the whistles of the hosting works also sounded the alarm, and the fire bells began ringing.

THE MASQUERADE.

There had been a masquerade ball in the theater during the early part of the night, thronging the place from top to bottom, but about 3 o'clock in the morning all left for their homes. The lights were put out, and all seemed safe, no fires having been lighted in the stoves in any part of the building. John Piper had gone to bed in the Opera House, and when the building was discovered to be on fire it was with difficulty that he was aroused. But for John Robertson, watchman at the California and Nevada Banks, who went into the theater and knocked about till he aroused him, John Piper would probably have been burned in the theater.

GREAT ALARM.

There was the wildest consternation in the neighborhood, and far and near the people were carrying out and packing up their goods. They were not wrong in this as had there started up the least wind all in the vicinity must have been destroyed. Fortunately, however, no wind started and the flames ascended perpendicularly. A great column of heated air rushed straight up from the central fire, and on all sides for a block away fell cinders from one to three inches in diameter, but the roofs all being wet by the rain and sleet, no new fires were started.

The firemen were slow in getting upon the ground, but once there they certainly did good work in confining the fire to the spot in which it originated. In a short time six streams were playing upon the flames from various directions, and though smoke rolled out of a dozen buildings in the vicinity of the great central flame, all were kept from taking fire.

A TOUGH FIGHT.

At times it seemed impossible that the surrounding buildings could be saved. Great volumes of black smoke rolled from their fronts, and they seemed each moment on the point of bursting into flames, but the streams were always turned upon them just in time. While making the main fight with the burning Opera House, the surrounding structures were not forgotten.

All did not go as smoothly as might have been expected with the firemen, for in several instances they were balked in their efforts by the bursting of their hose and by other troubles. A good thing, however, was that from the first to last there was no lack of water. Every hydrant to which a string of hose was attached threw a full stream from first to last.

As we have said, the fire was exceedingly hot—so hot that the water thrown into the center of it seemed to turn into vapor and be lost. It was soon seen that the main fire must take its course and that the fight must be to prevent it from spreading. In doing this it was almost impossible to prevent the flames from eating a little over bounds. Thus they worked eastward and wrecked the saloon connected with the Opera House, and northward through two buildings, including the saloon kept by Joseph Piper. Although not totally destroyed these buildings were so far burned as to be rendered untenable.

THE FLOODS OF WATER.

The dwellings surrounding the fire were all completely flooded with water. All the windows were knocked in and the floors were an inch deep with water. In most instances the greater part of the goods had been moved out before this flood of water came, but in several cases the water did great damage.

The residence of Mr. John Piper, to the north of the Opera House, was left a total wreck. Very little was saved from it. Many in the vicinity lost much by moving their goods out into the street. Furniture was smashed and mirrors were shattered by the heat, even at long distances from the fire.

THE LOSS

By the fire is not less than $35,000. The greater part of this was in the Opera House, which was worth from $20,000 to $25,000, and which was not insured. Outside of the Opera House, various parties have some insurance, probably enough to cover their losses.

THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE.

Mr. Piper and others acquainted with the situation are confident that the fire was kindled by an incendiary. There were no fires in the theater except the gas lights in use during the ball. All these had been safely extinguished more than an hour before the fire broke out. Moreover, the fire broke out in just such a place as would have been chosen by an incendiary, being in a sort of lumber-room, on the second floor, in which extra chairs, stools, etc., were kept. This room could be reached from the old Justice's Court, in the adjoining building. From this old Court-room there was a window that opened through the wall into the store-room in the theater. On several occasions the door leading from B street into the court room has been found to have been kicked open. The fire started in this part of the theater, and went directly up through the roof. In going up to the roof it branched off under the ceiling, and so worked its way out over the main portion of the theater. At one time—in the start—it was thought that the fire had been extinguished. It had been put out at the point where it originated, but it soon after started up off toward the south side of the building, to which place it had crept over the ceiling.

A CLOSE CALL.

It was a very close call for all the northern part of the town. Had there been any wind at all a dozen huge frame buildings surrounding the Opera House would soon have been in flames. The International Hotel—just across B street—would soon have been a volcano of flame, worse even than the Opera House itself for mass and heat, and thus all the water in town would have been of little use. As it was glass in the windows of the International Hotel was cracked. It was a very lucky escape, though bad enough as it stands.