Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-14
BLAZING BUILDINGS.
Carefully Planned Work of Incendi-
aries at Waco.
Heavy Loss the Result of the Fiends Worn
Fire in a Cotton Gin at HicO-LOss
at GAINESVILLE,
Incendialy Blaze at Waco.

WACO, TEX, Dec. 13.-At 3 O'Clock
this morning fire was discovered in two
story building on Bridge street, Nos. 10Y
and 109, occupied by S A. Owens, dealer
in agricultural implements. The fire de-
partment turned out promptly, but had
much trouble i'll eXtinguishing the flames.
The flames were very stubborn, and the
cdor emitted showed quite plainly the lib
eral use of Kerosene oil. The ffremen
discovered when the fire had been sub
| dued, the most extensive preparations
for successfully firing the building.
On the first floor the wooden parts of
wagons, plOws, ETC., were piled endwise
! against the walls, and between the wood
| work was stuffed straw and paper satu-
rated with oil. In that part of the house
| which had not been III flames were found
| six sacks filed with hay saturated with
oil, and on top of each sack was candle
about three inches long. These sacks
were placed in reapers and buggies. A
fve-gallon oil can was also found below
| half full of oil. The building was set on
! fire both from the lower and
upper stories, as the flames
| did not burn through the ceiling of the
lower story. DR.. Owens wife has been
| cut of the city some time and he has been
! sleeping with his son in the west front
room up stairs. 1t was the room in the
! rear of this III which DR.. Owens had
, stored his household effects. There was
hall running alongside these rooms to
the east into which opened two rooms
| similar to those on the west. These
rooms were not occupied and had moth
\ Il.
another magazine was discovered. In
| several places holes had been cut through
! the plastering evidently by an ak and
! the space between the wall and the lath-
ing for several feet up and down was
! filed with newspapers saturated with oil.
| These had not been set on fire and among
! the newspapers was found a number of
! the special editions of the Waco EX-
aminer of March Is, 1888, all of which
contained a marked advertisement of S
! A. Owens When the tiremen arrived
! they found that the front door down
| stairs was unlocked, and one man named
| Moore, Il painter, stated to the county
| attorney that he was the first to arrive,
| and as he came up he saw man come
| out of the front door and run up Bridge
| street.
DR.. Owens estimates the loss on the
| building, stock and household goods at
| SD 900. He was insured rs follows: On
| building, $1,000 in the -Etna of Hartford;
! on stock, $1,000 in the Phoenix of London
| $1,000 in the Norwich Union, $1,000 in the
| New Orleans Insurance Company, $500
| in the Fire Association of London; on
| household goods, $4,000 in the Germania
of New York. Half of the building
was owned by George NJ. Jackson
| of Waco and DR.. d. r. Wallace
! OF Terrell insured in the Lancashire of
! Manchester for $500. Loss, $3.50. DR..
! Owens is an old, respected and wealthy
| citizen of Waco, about siXty-tiiye years
old. He states that he has been feeble
| for several days past, and last night he
was visited by friend, Mr.. A. j. Ish /,
who sat up with him until nearly mid
night. After Mr. Ish left, he went i'm
mediately to bed and slept soundly till he
| awoke with the feeling of suffocation, and
| lighting his lamp he saw smoke pouring
| into the room He tried to dress him
| eeIf, but only partly succeeded when he
was overcome from asphyXia and fell
back upon the bed where he remained I'M
| til rescued by Mr.. A. W. Gilleatt. His
I son Sam was locked up at the time on a
! hung Jury in the case of the State VS..
F. Robert johnson, which had been out for
| tyS days and nights. DR.. Owens thinks
| that parties who set fire to the building
hadrfor thsr object the taking of his life.
! Only an accident prevented the success of
! the well-devised plan. 1t was calculated
| that all the candles would burn down and
| set fire to all the sacks of hay about the
| same time, but evidently one of the can
| dies must have fallen over and started
|, the blaze in one part of the house before
| the remaining magazines were fired.