The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-05-18

Last Thursday evening about 0 o'clock
Shortly after THE TIMES had gone to press>
an alarm of fire was sounded and our citi-.
zens were told that the Casket Works were
on fire. In few minutes IA crowd of
from two to three thousand people had
congregated at the Works to use their en-
deavors TO subdue the flames.
The fire was first discovered in the rub
bing room" on the east side of the building
near The northeast corner of the room.
Nightwatch A. X. Giles gave us the fol
lowing statement:
when the alarm of fire was given l
was in the third story of the north build
ing. ran to the window and was told
the fire was in the rubbing room; ran up
into the fourth story and across on the
bridge to the upper story of the middle
building When got into the rubbing
room ION the third floor) the fire had al
ready gained considerable headway. In
different spots all over the floor fire was
burning and the heat drove me out. A
pile of caskets in the center of the room
was also on fire. then ran down into
the office to the telephone to give the al
arm. As passed from the office into the
shipping room the heat was so intense as
to burn my face and eye brows. There
was no smoke of any account in the rub
bing room when ran in there
The room on the lower floor contained
considerable inflamable material and the
fire spread with great rapidity. soon reach
ing into different parts of all three of the
buildings destroyed. The fire department
responded to the alarm and in Just eight
minutes had two streams of water playing
on the fire At one time the firemen
seemed to have control of the fire, bat as
the water In the city reservoir gave out il
became necessary to remove the engine to
Comstook creek, but few feet distant,
and during the time, but very few min
utes, the fire again got under headway,
and was then beyond control.N
The heat from the flames was intense,
driving the crowd away and making it
doubly hard for the firemen to work.
1t was only with the greatest difficulty
that the machine building was saved.
The engine at the factory was put at work
and the hose of the Works used 10 throw
water on the cornice of the north building
and the bridge connecting the two build
ings. The bridge was kept wet aud did
not take fire; it held the wall of the build
ing up and thus probably saved the flames
from reaching the machine shop.
The buildings destroyed were: the finish
ing build, 50x1O0, three stories high, lin
which was the Office and shipping depart.
menD; the rubbing rooms, 40x40, three
stories; the store house, 50xIS0, four
stories high. The last two buildings were
erected last summer at an expense of
about $1,000. The storehouse was we'll
filed with finished work containing about
1000 caskets worth SIS, 900; in 1t was also
the cloth used in the manufacture of cloth
caskets, valued at $4,000.
The smoke kept people out of the store
house so that 1t was impossible to remove
any Of the goods. II was with great diff |
Guilty that the books were obtained from
the office, the fumes of the varnish driving
everyone out of the buildings !
Mr.. o. Il. Webster made five attempts |
to enter the Office long enough to turn off |
the gas at the meter, and then only sue.
ceeded by crawling to it. The heat be.