Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-09
Serious Fire in Waterbury.

A Part of Benedict & Burnham's Fine
 Establishment Burned = Thousands
 of Watches i'm Process of COnstruc-
 tiOn Destroyed The Loss Nearly
 SIGO,OOO.
 About midnight on Wednesday fire broke out in the elegant new office of the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Company at Wa terbury, which resulted most disastrously be- fore the fire was got under control. The burned building was erected with view to comfort, convenience and space and in style bsfitting so extensive and prosperous a corpo- ration In this building was also manufac- tured the Waterbury watch, the cheap time piece which is fast finding its way all over the civilized world and adding to the fame of that city as thriving manufacturing place. Of course the manufacture of watches will be temporarily suspended, as the machinery was damaged to @ considerable extent. although most of it was removed from the burning l building. The parts of thousands of watches which were in process of construction were ruined. The fire started in the basement, but from what cause cannot be conjsctured, and the flames ran up the elevator passage in the center of the building and also worked their
 
 | north side of the stairway. When the fire companies reached the scene the watch men were in the basement endeavor- 1 ing to extinguish the flames, and efforts | were made to get the upper hand of the fire without flooding the building with water. | One of the companies carried their hose into the basement and played stream up the ele- vator with good effect. The fire concealed in the partition, however, steadily worked it's way into the ceiling and walls of the z flee in | the north half of the building and ito the | finishing room of the watch department in | the second story over the office. The cell | ings and walls seemed to be full of fire, for wherever fireman would knock of pieces l of plastering tongues of flame would show ! themselves A 1 o'clock the City Hall alarm l was sounded for the second time, as 1t was | deemed best to have more help, and the fre- men were ordered to play water into the building unstintedly. In the meantime the rich and costly desks and chairs in the presi- dents and secretary's offices were taken out, | but were scratched and otherwise injured in l the removal When the fire reached the sec | ond story and broke out through the roof 1t | ragged fercely for some minutes, as stream | could not be played into the room until the | glass in the windows was weakened by the | heat, when the water finally forced it's way through into the finishing room where the | fire was having it's own way The walls | were badly burned, and the contents of | the rooms were in sorry plight after the fire had been extinguished. Everything from the top to the bottom of the building was drip l ping with water. The south part of the building was not touched by the fire, but the water had full sway and everything was thor l oughly drenched. The books and papers of | the company were in the large iron vault and were not harmed. The carpets were utterly ruined. The watch machinery was mostly gotten out of the fated building before it had suffered much injury. It was most serious fire though the exterior walls of the building remain intact to all appearances The loss on | the building and contents is estimated at from l $75, 900 to $1Oo,OO0; insurance $45,oOO