The daily gazette., 1880-07-06

Iho was uloCOFcreu, snOrCly a1Cer
seven O'Clock, Sunday evening, in
Geo. W. Bush & Sons freight house,
at French street wharf. Among the
first to learn of the fact was police
man Charles Thomas, whose first
action was to run to the wharf, and
cast loose the barge Century, which
had arrived from Philadelphia early
in the evening, with cargo. The
barge was afterwards taken by tug
and towed to place of safety.
Afterwards officer Thomas sum-
moned party Of men, and entering
the freight house, began rolling out
number of barrels of coal oil that
were stored in the building. by this
time the smoke was bursting forth
in black, suffocating volumes, but
the men stuck faithfully to their
work, and i'm few minutes, the
dangerous oil was taken out and re-
moved to the other side of the
street.
To the alarm the fire department
made a prompt response, and in a
short time eight steamers were play
ing vigorous streams of water upon
the burning building. The Friend
ship took the plug at Front and
King, the Washington at Front and
French, and the Reliance at Water
and French, while the other five
steamers were taken to King and
French street wharves, and pumped
directly from the Christiana. Mem
bers of the Water Witch and Fame
Hose constructed a raft of boards,
on which they hoated upon the
water, and were thus enabled to
play upon the front of the building,
which was upon the outer edge Of
the wharf. Several of the firemen
tumbled Off Of this raft, but all suc-
ceeded in scrambllng hastily out,
none the worse for their baths.
For nearly an hour after the
steamers got into active service, the
fire ragged inside the building, nothing
being visible from the outside eX-
eepting dense volumes of black
smoke, which settled down around
the immediate neighborhood so thick
ly that people could scarcely breathe.
Finally the flames burst through the
roof, and soon all the frame work of
the upper part of the building was
in a bright blaze. This gave the
firemen a better idea of how to con-
duct their operations, and in very
short time the fire was under COM
plete control. By ten o'clock the
fire was almost extinguished, and by
eleven o'clock it was so low that
one or two streams were sufficient
to keep it from bursting forth again.
The loss by this fire cannot be definite
ly ascertained for some time. The build
ing is complete wreck, and nearly all
the contents we're more or less damaged.
In the second floor were stored nearly q
thousand bales of rags, owned by the
Jessup q Moore Paper Company, which
were partially destroyed. The weight Of
these rags caused the floor to fall, and In
dropping upon the freight below they
had-a tendency to smother tue fame:
and thus save much stuff that otherwise
would have been destroyed. The stocl
of rags was under fair insurance effect
ed by the owners. Two hundred dollar!
worth of flour belonging to JOSEPH
Bancrofts, Sons Il Co., was also under
insurance, these parties keeping regular
insurance of $1,000 on the goods they
have stored from time to time in this
freight house. John r. Mari, -four dealer
No. 10S Z Second street, loses about sixty
barrels of -four and VIM. ID. Pickels like
amount, though the latter had al
insurance of 5000 on his stock, l.. f
Adair had a quantity of furniture burned
and Messrs, Harvey IL Sisler and d. II
Buckingham lot of salt.
There was also large amount o
sma freights belonging to various
parties in the city the loss of which will
probably iall upon Messrs. Bush Il Son
The system of responsibility seems to bt
that parties who haul their own good
away from the freight house have t.
assume all risk of storage, after they re
C i've notice from the firm that their good
have arrived. Those who received thei
goods regularly by Messrs. Bush & Son.
delivery wagons will be remuner4ted b,
the firm for all loss sustained. 1t will
take two or three days TO ascertain tn
, amount ofthe loss, as in many instance
a clio @ examination of the articles viii
, be required 10 determine the extent an
nature of the injury.
The origin of the fire is Unknown
Incendiarism was suspected at first, bu
; there being an entire absence of an.
facts tending TO confirm this suspicion
, it was abandoned and spontaneous com
, bustlon accepted as reasonabl
, | hypothesis. Considering the quantity G
, O d lags stored upon the second tlooI
, there can be no doubt Il at spontaneon
} combustion was the cause.
SCENES AND INCIDENTS.
The fire created great excitement
and several thousand people gathere'
: at all convenient points of observation
in the immediate neighborhood.
A large crowd gathered upon tn
roof of the old coal shed extending
along the King street front when sud
|. denly about twenty feet of the lowe
e end of the shed fell down precipitatinl
l. some forty or fifty people to tn
ground. Tho others OH the shed mad
frantic rush to jump down, whel
n they were checked by Councilman Nc
e Glinchey, who sounded note of warn
d ing in lone so loud and commanding
i as to cause every man to stand still 70
an instant. Then they clambere'
: down quietly. Had they rushed dow
i pell neil, as they first started man
g persons, doubtless, would have sustain
ed serious injury. Fortunately non
Is of those who fell with the part of tn
Z shed that gave way were injured, be
Y yond few slight bruises.
n uundreds of people looked at tn