The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1882-09-09
FIRE All CHARLESTOWN.
Destruction OF Cooling & Evans Canning
Establishment.

About h.,f past nine url"ck, o:i Ilr'''Hy
night last, MIR. White, the watcisinan al
| MeSsrs Cooling x Evans canning bousr,
| located at Chariestow'n in this county, dis
covered that the roof oi The building i'll the
| immediate vicinity of the boiler stack, was
on fire. He gave the alarm, but before hell
| IN sufficient force arrived the flames had
| gained complete mastery, and ,t"d all
! their attempts at eXtinguishing them. Mr.
! " lte thinks that h,t! there been two OF
! three persons upon the ground al tie time
! he discovered the fire it con!a have been
extnguiSted. As >",il rs sufficient mum
| bev Of citizens arrived upon the ground !,
| line WAS formed from the burning huiIdlng
10 the river and water passed lay means OF
| buckets, and freely applied to the burning
| structure. This, although it failed t" save
| the building. no doubt was the means OF
| preventing the destruction of Il great deal
of the stock ou hand-which consisted
mainly of canned peaches, piled i'll larg"
| stacks in one end OF the Uuilding-the water
| passing down over the cans keeping them
! from becoming sufficiently heated to melt
| the solder.
| The entire building 32N60 feet, with
| boiler house, l0NlG feet ana shedding, lax
! IL feet, was entirely consumed, The ma
chinery was all greatly damaged, all the
! fittings of the boiler, pipes, gang"S, Ne, be-
! ing melted of, and til" canning apparatus
badly damaged. \ofhing is left of the
! building and machinery hut the: bare boiler
and stack, Il mass Of bent, broken aud
melted machinery and a few charrpd beams.
! The concern had been running three
! weeks and the cit!re product was stored III
| and about the factory, none having been
| shipped IN one end OF the main l.uil,ling,
| in piles or racks eight or ten feet in height.
! stood ~, 900 cans OF peaches really tor pack
| inc in cases. 10 " hat extent or how many
Of these are ruined it is Impossible To say
| Just now, as an examination alone will de
! yelcp that fact. Tie outer layers. however,
are badly damaged, many of the cans Icing
melted and from many of them the caps
have fallen. Al >llch. of course, Will BE. Il
total less. The value Of this entire lot was
about 81, coo. Adjoining these large stacks
of fruit were stored $1,000 empty cans, i'll
pine eases or boXeS, twelve in IA case. All
these were entirely destroyed, he great bnlk
OF them hting literally burned up wv the
flames. These We're worth about 5000
making loss in stock, provided none "f IL
is tit for lnaIket Of about IS. 500. The
building and machinery We're valued at
81, 500 little or nothing of .lirh was saved.
Outside OF the building and against it both
at one end aud side We're stacked i2J cases
of peaches ready for market, and about
l, 900 empty eases. All the full eases We're
sare.i and nut :, small proportion of the
empty ones were lnsr.
The firm had just received I'm order from
Chicago house for Loco eases Of their
goods, which, they had arranged IL begin
shipping on "Wednesday. The misfortune
viii, Of courSe, prevent the filling of this
contract. Fortunately there was No raw
stock on hand at the time of the fire. y
vessel load OF peaches had arrived the ever
ing before and lay iii the river awaiting
rise of the tide to allow Il To get i'll to M
load. This WAS turned over 10 MesSr>. ts-
borne & Nandiver, OF North East.
The firm holds 'wo policies Of insurance,
one of 81, COO on stock lii the Hanover Com
pany of New York, and one OF 1890 on
building and machinery III the Farmers
and Mechanics Company of Cecil county,
making Sl,-Do in ALL Their loss will I'M
doubtedly he far in excess ri this amount.
Me>srS. Cooling x Evans propose 10 com
nipnrt rebuilding tatr factory right away
and hope 10 lie Ill readiness IT, resi-. ne Oper-
ations in temporary quarters sometime next
week. The lire came al The most unfortu-
nate time possible, as this is the very height
of the canning season, and the loss to the
concern from Stoppage alone Will be con
>idera ole The fire Is supposed TO have
originated either from the heat of the stack
communicating to the woodworiI Of the
roof or else irs,. S,ia.l v ;s.c!, i!a.! lodged
on the rooi during the hours ri business on
Tuesday, and smouldered until the time it
broke out into flames. No suspicion Of an
incendiary origin of the fire is entertained
by the firm.
~ New fail Hats opening this week at
fl,, CT AS FEpS.i