Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-08-30
TIVE HOWARD OIL MILLS.
Further Particulars Of the Burning Of
the Sreat Mills Inthe Suburbs
Of Houston.
The boss In the NeIghborhood Of Three
Hundred Thousand Dollars, Hair
Covered by Insurance.
inc 0fiain OF the Fire a Mystery -.The raal-
are the water Pressure the cau.e
OF tho Great Loss.

Special TO the Gazette.
HousroN, Tx, Aug. 2g.--Tho Howard
OIL mills, situated In the suburbs OF the
city, that caught Ore at 1890 o'clock this
morning, continued burning until asy.
light, completely destroying the mill, ma.
chlnory, stock on hand, adjunct buildings
and i've box'cars belonging to the Hous-
ton & Texas Central Railroad company
loaded with cotton-seed standing on
sido.track In the mill yard.
Your correspondent revisited the scene
OF the tlre this morning and interyIewed
Mr. John l.. Kane, until recently snl,orin-
tendent OF the mills in this
city, and CLEANED the following,
II being Saturday night the Ores were
all put out and the watehman was cool
Ing down the boiler and other machinery
preparatory to making an examination Of
the entire work to see II any repairs were
necessary before rosuming work Monday
While at work he noticed small blaze
above ON the second floor. He lmmedi.
ately attached q length OF hose lying near
TO the hydrant and attempted 20 turn on
the water, but failed TO got stream.
! lie then sounded the alarm by tcle.
phone and again tried TO procure water,
/ but without avail
The IRE department soon came, but
were powerless 10 do any work,
The fre rapidly spread from the lint.
room, the place OF inception, to the main
part OF the building, sweeping everything
before II, destroying the Immense stock
OF cotton-seed, sacks, machinery, etc.,
contained therein.
Two large iron TANKS stationed about
tifty feet from the main building were the
only things In the place not DESTROYED,
they fortunately being empty.
Tho city inflrmary and Furman com
press near by escaped destruction on ac.
count OF the wind blowing In southerly
direction.
The mills were estimated by Mr.. Kane
TO be worth between two hundred and
illty and three hundred thousand dollars,
and were insured for $3.50, 900 In Northern
and European companies, and also la
nearly all the companies represented Ia
Texas
The buildings covered three and one
half acres OF ground, and employed 1870
men.
One OF the oil tanks had barrel ca.
paclty OF 1900 and the smaller OF $500.
IL was the only mill OF the company In
Texas on paying basis,
Six hundred tons Of seed and 10000
sacks were destroyed
The mills were considered TO be the flu
est IN the United States belonging TO the
Howard company.
Owing To the general Office being To-
Gated In Galveston tho names OF the in
surance companies cannot he furnished by
the superintendent until tomorrow.
The entire business community deplore
greatly the calamity, az the mills were Of
immense benefit TO the city in business
| point OF view.
The waier-works are blamed for not be-
ing able TO furnish water.
Their superintendent, O, II. Sprong,
says that he went TO the en-
CINE house OF the company
and found his engineers there with high
pressure on and cannot explain at present
why the water supply failed to reach the
mill
He proposes to investigate the matter
thoroughly.
A big damage suit, II In expected, viii
grow out OF the matter.
II cannot be ascertaiped whether the
mills will DO rebuilt or not