Dateline: Cape Island, NJ, Nov. 9, 1878 — Fire broke out yesterday morning in the summer city of Cape May around 7 a.m. in the attic of the new wing at Ocean House on Perry Street. By the time the flames could be contained, some 11 hours later, 40 acres of prime property lay in a pile of charred ruins. Arson is suspected. No one was injured.    A workman on the roof of the Stockton Hotel spotted the fire, but it was Civil War hero Colonel Henry Sawyer who sounded the fire alarm.    Northwesterly winds blowing at 35 mph reaching gusts of up to 50 mph caused the fire to crisscross Perry Street north to Washington Street (see map). Flames then shot over to Jackson Street spreading south to Beach Avenue, turning back up Decatur to Washington again. The flames moved east toward Ocean and Gurney where firemen, with the help of fire engines sent from Camden, finally contained the inferno at approximately 6 p.m.    The path of the fire systematically brought about the destruction of some of Cape May's finest hotels. Shortly after the fire ignited in the Ocean House, Congress Hall - on "Whiskey Row" - also caught fire which consumed the new wing fronting Perry Street. Soon after, the main wing of the hotel facing Washington Street was also engulfed in flames.    Simultaneously, more flames shot to the back of Merchant's House on Jackson Street. The Merchant consisted of two, three-story buildings, situated midway between the Atlantic Hotel and Centre House on Jackson Street, immediately adjoining the Ocean House property. Winds then carried the fire down to the beach. By 10:30 a.m., the conflagration destroyed several cottages along Jackson Street, as well as Centennial House and the old Atlantic House. Cape May Fire Chief Colonial Edward Lansing admits the city is ill-equipped to handle a blaze of this magnitude. The current fire department consists of a truck, one hand-engine, and a number of chemical engines. Col. Lansing's request for funds to purchase  new equipment were denied earlier this year by City Council because of budget constraints.    The main problem, he said, was lack of water. Although a valiant effort, the bucket brigade stretching from the ocean to Ocean Hotel, some 300 feet,  was insufficient in stopping the spread of this devastating fire. Mayor Thomas Edmunds sent a telegram to the Camden Fire Department for aid and around 12 noon, with the fire at its height, and after the Avenue House had caught fire, a steam engine from Camden arrived by special train. The fire was then checked at Perry and Jackson but continued to spread toward Decatur where Judge Hamburger's cottage was destroyed. Three of W. E. King's cottages were also destroyed.