of the crockery store was destroyed as the fire fighters were forced to combat the flames leaping up in huge piles of packing cases filled with straw. The financial losses to the merchants were heavy. 1904. George Stoll & Company, a large wholesale business dealing in coffee, tea and spices at 447-449 Los Angeles Street, escaped destruction on February 2, 1904, when either sparks from a roaster or a "lighted cigar stump" ignited a pile of packing cases but the flames were extinguished by firefighters, "some of them crawling along the floor with a line of hose" to the rear of the building. At the same time, another fire broke out in the coffee departrment of the R.L. Craig Co. on Los Angeles Street near First Street, also in the Wholesale District. That one was caused by an overheated coffee roaster, and it was quickly extinguished. 1906. Arsonists were suspected in a blaze that broke out in a new two-story addition at the rear of Standard Woodenware at 230-234 Los Angeles Street on February 18, 1906. The firebox alarm was pulled by a passing police officer, but help was slow to arrive because most of the nearby engine companies were fighting another fire at Fifth and Main streets. Two men, reportedly night watchmen, were sleeping inside. and were discovered only after firemen began tearing off a grating at the rear of the building. Nearby businesses that were briefly endangered were the Club Stables, with 50 horses, Hawley & King farm-implement house, the Cohn-Goldwater machine house and the S.J. Smith manufactory. Police officers were brought in from other areas, and a dragnet was made of "suspects and all characters" who could not "explain their movements." and they were brought in "for explanation.""Big Fire Imperils Blocks," Los Angeles Herald, February 19, 1906, pages 1 and 2 1906. A two-story brick building occupied by the Holbrook, Merrill and Stetson Hardware Company, which took up nearly half the south side of the 200 block of Los Angeles Street, was severely damaged in a three-alarm fire in the early-morning hours of June 20, 1906. A newspaper account reported that "The female inmates of places nearby had a big scare. They took to the streets in their light attire and refused to re-enter their rooms for a long time. . . . Five companies responded . . . and two more as soon as they could