Tombstone, AZ Fire Consumes Most of Town, May 1882

Consumed To Cinders.

The Principal Portion of Tombstone, Arizona, Ruined by a Conflagration.

Three Hotels, the Telegraph and Two Newspaper Offices Among the Sufferers.

The Grant Company’s Smelting Works at Leadville, Col., Reduced to Ashes.

Destructive Fire at Colborns, Ont.-Chicago Blazes and Other Burnings.

Laid In Ashes.

Tombstone’s Loss.

San Francisco, Cal., May 25.-A Tombstone dispatch says fire this afternoon destroyed a large number of buildings there.

The portion of the town destroyed comprises almost the entire business part of the place.

The three principal hotels were burned, and the office of the Daily Nuggett was destroyed and the Daily Epitaph office is heavily damaged.

THE Western Union Telegraph office was also destroyed.

It is impossible to estimate the loss accurately at present, but it will probably reach $500,000.

The insurance will aggregate $250,000.

Inter Ocean, Chicago, IL 26 May 1882

--------

The Fire.

Tombstone’s Devastation

The Fire King Reaps A Harvest.

The Heart of the City Destroyed.

Scenes and Incidents of the Great Conflagration.

The Losses-Individual Sufferers.

Building Will Commence To-day.

Full Particulars Of The Fire.

Once again has the fiery demon of destruction spread his baleful wings over the fateful town of Tombstone, and one again within a year, has the bonanza camp been visited by the fiery scourge. Yesterday morning the bright sun rose over as happy and prosperous a camp as any on the Pacific coast. Ere the God of day sank behind the western hills a scene of desolation and ruin met the eye in every direction. The blackened walls and smoking ruins of what were once handsome and beautiful buildings is all that remains of what was the very heart of the town of Tombstone. The business portion of the town has been destroyed, and many a man and woman, too, who yesterday was in affluent circumstances, find themselves to-day, reduced to poverty. The baleful fates, which seems to hover over us, have once more thrown a deadly blight on our progress and prosperity. But despite the frowns of Fortune the bonanza city will rise Phoenix-like from its ashes, and in a few short weeks what are now smoldering ruins will be built up and ready for business. Below we give a succinct account of the origin and progress of the great fire. No pen can describe the scenes and incidents of the fearful conflagration. The fiery flames rose high in the heavens while dense volumes of smoke obscured the light of day, and made Tombstone look like a hell on earth. The shrieks of women, and the imprecations of men, the mad rushing of vehicles, and the indescribable confusion, was a scene long to be remembered. The Epitaph office had a close call but thanks to the indomitable exertions of our gallant fire department, and the untiring exertion of out lant printer boys, we are enables to present to out readers this morning a full and complete account of

The Fire

Which started in a water closet in rear of the Tivoli saloon on Allen street. It soon communicated with the framework of the “garden” in rear of the saloon. The wood being dry, it ignited and burned with the rapidity of cotton. Numerous shanties surrounded the burning pile. Closets, kitchens, storerooms, on the rear, with the wood trimmings on the adobe walls on front, the flames were easily fed. The sumptuous apartments of the Tombstone Club In the Grand Hotel building were among the first to kiss the flames; the general building of the Grand Hotel was next embraced in the fiery arm; the wooden staircase on the outside of the building in the rear fell

An Easy Victim.

Continued