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The public is familiar with the efforts that have been made and the partial success that was supported to have been attained by the removal of infected vessels to the lower bay, and the erection of Hospital buildings at Seguine's Point. Also that the buildings there were destroyed by the people, and that in consequence the old Quarantine establishment became fully as obnoxious to the people in the immediate vicinity as before.
Recent cases of Yellow Fever outside the Quarantine limits caused great alarm in the
neighborhood and hundreds fled, fearing contagion. There were no threats of violence made openly, but the Quarantine officials knowing how strong the feeling was against the establishment had anticipated some such demonstration as the destruction of the buildings, and these anticipations were realized last night to the fullest extent.
At about 10 o'clock the Small Pox Hospital, situated on the north-west part of the Quarantine enclosure on the hill was discovered on fire. Several persons had
succeeded in getting inside the grounds and it was well underway before any effort could be made to save it. As soon as the light was discovered outside there was a large concourse of people surrounded the walls and demanded admittance avowedly for the purpose of extinguishing the
flames.
Suspecting them to be accomplices of those who had already commenced the work of destruction, the officials inside endeavored to prevent their entrance; but they soon battered down the gates, scaled the walls, and in a very brief period every building on the Quarantine grounds was in flames. They entered the smallpox and yellow fever hospitals, and every other building in which there were any sick, carried them out on
mattresses and
deposited them on the ground.
They then seized all the spare beds and whatever other combustible material they could find, placed them under the porticos and staircases of the buildings and set them on fire. The few officers who were inside did all they could to prevent the conflagration, but they were easily beaten down by superior numbers, and even the family of the Health Officer had barely time to leave their residence before it was on fire in several places.
To complete the work of destruction, all the outhouses, fences, even to the pump, were burned; and now there is not a building standing except that known as the Women's Hospital. About 700 tons of coal caught fire and is also now entirely consumed. The conflagration continued until daylight.
The following is a complete list of the buildings burned last night within the Quarantine enclosure, being all the buildings used for hospital purposes, excepting
one, the lower or Woman's Hospital, fronting the Bay. This, however, was set on fire as late as five o'clock this morning, and was only saved by the greatest exertions from sharing the fate of the rest.
The Small Pox Hospital was a brick building, 30 by 60 feet, of two stories, and having two piazzas. It stood on the hill back of the Doctor's private residence. There were no patients in this building, as it was undergoing repairs, and the sick had been removed into the nearest adjoining shanty. Five shanties, 200 feet long, set up on brick pillars about two feet from the ground; they were filled with brick, and of one story.
Three shanties, 125x25 feet, up the same height, and built of the same materials as the others. One of these contained the small pox patients, one the yellow fever cases, and the other diseases of various kinds, and the rest were occupied as sleeping rooms for the stevedores, and another for the use of the nurses. They were all filled with iron bedsteads, bedding, crockery, and other furniture peculiar to an hospital. Connected with each
of these were various out-buildings. There were four large heaps of coal, all of which were fired and destroyed, say about 150 tons. Some of the shanties contained cooking and
other stoves and ranges.
The Saint Nicholas, a large building used for the accommodation of passengers in quarantine; it is 60X130 feet, three stories high, of heavy brick walls, and having porticos at each end; the stoop and pillars of brown stone; it had a piazza on the east side. There were also two large brick out houses destroyed. They even burned the pump. The fences were set on fire in more than twenty different places. Two large breaches were made in the west wall, through which they entered the premises. Dead house and dissecting room.
A barn 30X50 feet, and two stories full of hay. Two horses were in this barn and a lot of hogs. They took the sick wagon, a cart and a light wagon, and ran them into the fire. Carriage house and coal house, 600 tons of coal, a lot of steam heating apparatus, a brass 6 pounder, an ice house, &c. A baggage house for emigrants, fire engine house, 25x50 feet, engine, 250 feet of 36 Buckets burned, together with much luggage.
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