Forty Houses Destroyed~1860
Thurs. Feb. 26 , 1860, North Carolina Argus February 16, 1860
FORTY HOUSES DESTROYED
-- We regret to learn from letter received in our city last evening , that
another very destructive fire has taken place in Elizabeth City, which has
consumed about 40 houses on Road Street, the principal business thoroughfare,
together with an immense amount of goods. The stores of THOS. GATKINS, THOS.
R. COBB, POOLE & WHEELER, W. W. BURGESS and others, are mong those consumed.
Several of the buildings were new and had just been completed, The fire broke
out at 2 a.m. Tuesday, in a new warehouse belonging to MR. COBB, and raged for
hours with great violence, the flames sweeping onward on both sides of the
thoroughfare, furious by a strong breeze blowing at the time, and meeting
across the street formed an immense fiery arch, above which they towered and
flashed fiercely. The scene was grand and awful, and the excitement of the
multitude that witnessed the destructive conflagration was increased by the
fear that the whold town would be swept away.
By this dread visitation in that pleasant town, many persons are thrown out
of employment, a number of families are deprived of shelter, and means of
support and an immense loss has been incurred by individuals and the
corporation at large.
This sad calamity, which has so quickly followed another, in the same town,
and which we chronicled last year, is again declared to be the fiendish work
of some heartless and inhuman incendiary. The torch was applied at the dead
hour of night, the place selected to kindle the devouring flame being the
first story of a new warehouse stocked with goods by an enterprizing citizen.
We truly hope there is sufficient insurance to enable the sufferers of this
destructive fire to commence without much delay the work of rebuilding and
that further and more full particulars may not be so gloomy as the account
received last evening. Meanwhile, we suggest that our citizens assist promptly
in relieving those who are rendered houseless and penniless by this sudden,
unexpected and calamitous conflagrations.
(Norfolk Argus, 15th inst.)
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