Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-02-25
Costly Fire.

| IcIuay EIIST0o6'
In the small hours of last Satur-
day morning Officer Englehardt
was patrolling Main street, and,
when in front of Dotter & Bradley's
furniture establishment, he dis
tinctly heard a sound within. He
listened and thought he dis
tinguished the dragging of some
heavy body like box or piece of
furniture along the floor and then
came the sound of footsteps.
Thinking that there might be burg
lars within, the officer hastened
to police headquarters where he
secured the services of Officer Dob. !.
son, and the two returned 10
the furniture store, with the inten.
tion of trapping the thieves, if they
should prove to be such. One of
the officers started through Bayer's
beer cellar to gain the rear of the
store and cut off exit in that direct
ion. AS he descended Bayer's
stairs, he met Eckert, waiter in
the establishment, and the latter
said: There's a fire around here
somewhere; 1 smell it," Itdid not
take long to prove that Eckert was
right, and to locate the fire in
Dotter & Bradley's establishment.
An alarm was then given as speed.
lily as possible, The time was
five minutes past two O'clock.
The Fire Department turned out
and was promptly upon the
scene, together with considerable
crowd of citizens who turned out at
the unseemly hour. The front doors
of the furniture store were forced
open and the firemen found q dense
mass of smoke-so dense in fact
that they could not force an en-
trance or tell anything about the
location Of the flames. Frank Nc.
Coy, Of Confidence Engine Com
pany, says it would have been i'm.
possible to distinguish lighted
torch ten feet distant through the
black cloud within. There was no
alternative but to thrust the hose
inside and play away. After
time, the hosemen were enabled to
crawl along the floor in the
water as far back as the
inner side of the office, perhaps
twenty feet from the front door,
and at last one, more adventurous
than the others, reached the stair
way leading into the basement and
located the blaze. 1t was the work
of about an hour to subdue tie
flames entirely, tho firemen leav-
ing the scene at O'Clock. The
damage was very great. Starting
in the basement, the flames had
eaten their way through the floor,
consuming, or partially consuming,
in the meantime most of the goods
stored below. In the store the fur
niture was smoked, heated, warped
and charred, and what escaped from
this ordeal was spoiled by the water
thrown upon 1t. After the smoke
had cleared away the place pre-.
sented perfect spectacle of wreck
and ruin. Besides the damage done
to Dotter & Bradley's stock, the
smoke had penetrated the dry goods
store of Dillon & Kenealy adjoin-
ing, doing considerable damage,
and 1t had flooded the apartments
over the front of Dotter & Bradley's
store almost destroying the furni-
ture and fittings of DR.. Kurtz.
Good Templars' Hall and
the offices of DIR. French
escaped with little or no damage.
Dillon q Kenealy's loss will hard
ly exceed seven or eight hundred
dollars. Dotter & Bradley had, al
together, about $50, worth of
stock on hand. A portion of this
was stored in room on the second
floor over Dillon g. Kenealy's es.
tablishment and escaped uninjured.
Their total insurance was $26, $50,
apportioned among the following
companies: Imperial, Northern &
Queen, $4,000; Hartford, $3.50;
Royal Canadian, $4,000; London,
Liverpool & Globe, $4,850; North
British & Mercantile, $1,000; Etna,
$4,000; Fire Association, 1850. |
The first three companies are
represented by Drakenfeld, tho
second three by Brodrick and the
last by Walter Moore. The portion
of Dotter & Bradley's stock de-
stroyed was covered by insurance
amounting to $4,000. The loss
will reach SIS, 900 or Sic, 200, as esti.
mated by Mr.. I. w. Lord. The
building, owned by Hellman &
Downey, is insured mainly inl
Brodrick's companies and the
amount is sufficient, of course, to
cover all the damage, which will
hardly exceed thousand dollars.
The origin of the fire was such
as to leave no doubt that it was In
cendiary. The flames were started
in no less than eight different
places in the basement. Whoever
did the work was very deliberate
about it. The gentlemen connected
with the establishment think that
an entrance was effected through o
back window. The blinds covering
this window had shrunk so as to
leave an interspace between their
edges of perhaps half or three
quarters of an inch. The theory
is that some implement had been
thrust into this crack and
the swing bolt fastening
the shutters on the inside thrown
up. This would give an easy en-
trance and one secure from obser-
walton. A saw-horse left standing
under the window sill would seem
to show the means of mounting to
the window. Once inside, the in
cendiary proceeded deliberately to
nail blankets over the front base
ment windows, ostensibly to pre-.
vent the glare from reaching the
street until the fire had gained
good headway. The match was
touched to inflammable material
in no less than eight diff