Torch Rioters Give Firemen Continuous Job
Alarms by Score During the Night; Stones Fly.
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Source: Chicago Daily Tribune, 31 July 1919, pg. 2.
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More than forty fires touched off by rioters in the black belt last night kept engine and truck companies clanging up and down the streets almost continuously from 8:30 until 10 o'clock. It was not until the troops moved into the district that the firemen were able to catch their breath. The calls came so fast the fire alarm operators could hardly keep track of them and engine company No. 50, at Forty-seventh street and Wentworth avenue, was kept so busy that two companies—engine company No. 19 and truck company 15—were sent to its aid.
Fifty-two alarms had been turned in by 10:30, more than forty of which were said to be in the district bounded by Wells street and Wentworth avenue and Thirty-ninth and Fifty-third streets. During the day sixty-five alarms had been sounded.
Mob at Burning Building.
When firemen reached a burning two story brick building at 5029 Shields avenue they found a howling mob outside and two old Negro men, two colored women, and a white girl cowering under a large table on the second floor. The occupants were rescued and the fire extinguished. Negroes set fire to the home of a Mrs. Donohue, at 746 West Fifty-second street, and shots were being fired into the windows when the fire companies reached the scene.
At 4757 South Wells street, occupied by Negroes, a crowd dragged a talking machine and other articles of furniture outside and set fire to them. Firemen extinguished a blaze at 5422 South La Salle street at 10 o'clock, only to be called back to put out a second one at 11:30. Barns and wood sheds in the rear of houses occupied by Negroes were set on fire at 215, 245, and 248 West Forty-sixth street. Several homes vacated by Negroes during the day were found in flames.
Other Fires.
Other addresses at which fires broke out were:
5031 Shields avenue.
4802 Wentworth avenue.
4447 Wentworth avenue.
4746 South Wells street.
4742 South Wells street.
148 West Forty-fourth street.
3910 South Wells street.
4744 South Wells street.
4535 Portland avenue.
4716 South Wells street.
4735 South Wells street.
6817 Elizabeth street.
3735 South Wells street.
4617 South Wells street.
2932 South Wells street.
Firemen Stoned.
Several false alarms were turned in by rioters, evidently with the intention of stoning the firemen when they arrived on the scene. This occurred on several occasions. Marshal Joseph Kenyon of the 12th battalion was responding to an alarm at Fifty-fourth and Dearborn streets with engine company No. 51 when he was turned back by the police and warned there was no fire there.
A crowd of Negroes stopped in front of the headquarters of engine company 61 at 5300 Wentworth avenue and attacked twenty white men. Firemen closed the doors to the station, whereupon the Negroes began firing through the doors. Several men climbed through the windows to escape the crowd outside.
Whites fired the house at 5432 La Salle street, into which a colored family had just moved. The family fled to safety.
[End of news article]
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Page compiled: 5 November 2001
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