The Daily Dispatch: may 28, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Destructive fire.

--Loes of Life.--At about 11 o'clock Thursday night a fire occurred in the rear of a coffee house on Marais street, between Customhouse and Bienville, which swept the entire block through to Villere street, with the exception of a two-story brick building on the corner of Marias and Customhouse, in about an hour and a quarter. The wind favoring the flames, a row of wooden buildings on the north side of Bienville also caught fire, and were almost entirely destroyed before the flames could be subdued. The general alarm of twenty bells brought the entire department of our gallant firemen to the spot; but want of water in the beginning, the inflammable material for the flames to feed upon, and a breeze from the southwest, were altogether, too much for even their known efficiency, and it was only by the most extraordinary exertions that the destructive element was stopped at all.

The streets around were strewed with furniture and bedding of every description and in various stages of destruction, leaving room for the belief that many families must have lost everything except the wearing apparel in which they were clad at the time. The buildings destroyed were used principally as dwellings. The entire loss may be estimated at $100,000, a good portion of which will fall upon the insurance offices. As might have been expected, the destruction was not confined to property. We regret to learn that a woman and her child, living on the west side of Marais street, were burned to death.--N.O. Delta.