The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-02-16
WAS 1T INCENDIARY?
Three Buildings Burned on East
Main Street
Suspicious Circumstances Con-
nected with the Fire.

A few minutes before o'clock yes
terday morning fire was di covered
issuing from two-stOry wooder
building, No. 105 Main street, anC
un alarm was sounded BY a switch en-
CINE doing night work in the Pacific
yards. Immediately after q genera
alarm was sounded from the city hal
and the fire department turned Oul
promptly, engine No. 2 being first al
the scene. BY the time, however,
that water was got on the burning
building it was almost envelOped in
the flames, and it became apparent
that it and the one adjoining were
doom. d. The attention of the fire.
men was then directed toward wing
Judge Bakers building, east of the
one burning, in which they succeeded
Tine other two were completely de-
'stroyed. They were owned by Mr.,
ID. ID Fear, an were occupied, the
two story one, where the Fl e origin
ated,- by A. b. Stanford, colored,
who kept sort of billiard hall and
low dive, and the one on the corner
by S. l.. Nichols, who kept what was
called the Delmunico restaurant.
The losses of the occupants, as well
as the origin of the fire, vary vastly.
In regard to the former, Mr.. Fear
states that he believes his loss will
amount to 81, 800, upon which he
has an insurance of $500. A good
estimate would not put his actual loss
at $500. His insurance is in the
New Hampshire company. Stanfo d,
the ,lored man who ran the pool
room, had an insurance of $500 on
his stuff and his parents $500 more
on their household effects. They will
be The most fortunate of any, provided
they succeed in getting the amounr iu-
sured for. The other occupant, Nichols,
did rot have any insurance, but sue
ceeded in saving the major portion of
his effects and his actual loss will not
exceed $50.
The oigin Of the fire seems
wrapped in mystery, ut least for the
present. Young Stanford states that
he knows nothing whatever regarding
it, as he was out in the country at he
time visiting a lady friend, and did
not reach nome until after
the fire. The other inmates
of the huiIding are equally ignorant
on the subject, they claiming to have
been asleep at the time, yet there was
to have been no fire in the
lower part of the building where it
started. Persons who first discovered
flames state that they bore the az
pearance of fol owing oil tracings and
are under the impression that there
might have been some underhanded
work. Stanford's story about being
out of town does not seem to hang
we'll together, neither does it tally
with that of some of the night police,
who claim to have seen him on the
street between IL and l o'clock.
This he might be able to explain
away. The young man did not
'eem to take the matter very much to
leart, as he got gloriously drunk, to
celebrate the event.
The buildings destroyed were old
mes, being the first built east of La
nrne street on the north side of Main,
having been erected in 1868. |
They have for long time been consid-
d a disgrace to the locality, owing to |
he tenants who occupied them. Their
cannot be looked upon as |
. loss TO the city, and it is to be hoped
hat it will tend to purge the locality
f the class which infested it.