St. Paul daily globe., 1888-11-15
FIRE BUG VAN KORFFi
The Recent Holocaust at Ro-
chester Attributed to a.
Demented Engineer.
He Has a Record as an
Incendiary Very Hard to
Beat.
An Unknown Man Causes q
Panic in a Passenger
Train.
Mary Anderson Causes the
Arrest Of q L0ve-Siek
Youth.
Special to the Clone.

Speclal 10 tne GLOBE.
ROCHESTER,, n. Y. Nov. IA start.
ling episode in connection with the
recent fire was the arrest last night by
Chief Detective Hayden and Capt. Nc
Cormick of the engineer of the lantern
works. John Van Korff. The fact of
the arrest was kept secret until this
afternoon on account of the excitement
prevailing. Van Korff has family,
and came to Rochester eight years ago
from Syracuse. His previous residence
was in Pennsylvania. The attention of
the police here was first called to Van
KOrif when he was brakeman on the
Buffalo, New York Il Philadelphia
railroad. Several loaded freight
cars were burned and he was
suspected of incendlarism. The case
was investigated. but in the absence Of
positive proof nothing was done. Later
he worked as stationary engineer on
Broadway in this city and during that
time the building twice caught fire. but
the flames were eXtinguished with pals
of water. The third time the place took
that the pals and buckets had disap-
peared, having been thrown into the
canal. Van Kooff was suspected, but
again there was an absence of proof.
Before this he had been employed as
engineer at Morse's sash and blind fac
tory. That place was burned twice
while he was employed there. There
are several other similar
CASES WHICH LOOK SUSPICIOUS.
l.. NJ. Gould's grocery on West avenue
took fire at one time and Van Korff was
not only the first man to discover it, but
he showed Gould where it started and
removed bale of cOttOn-waste with
which the fire had been started. This
was saturated with oil and had evidently
been taken from car. At another
time Van KOrff was taken to the city
hospital, having fallen in fit and suS-
tanned a cut in the head. While at the
hospital complaints came to the police
of the disappearance Os Sundry articles.
Chief Hayden asked if Van Korff was
still at the hospital, and. being an
swered in the affirmative, said: "If
you don't look out you will have a fire
in the building" A days after fire
of rubbish or old clothing in a.
clothes press. Van Korff was then dis
charged from the hospital. He was
arrested some years ago on a charge of
stealing watch, but although the fact
was proven and acknowledged, he was
let off on account Of his family. There
are other charges against him. When,
therefore. Chief Hayden learned that
Van Korff had been the engineer of the
lantern works, the latter was placed
under surveillance and watched closely
since Saturday. He is now under ar
rest on suspicion of having started the
fire which resulted in such enormous
loss of life and property. When
charged with the crime he denied any
knowledge of the origin of the fire. He
rangement. In the opinion of the
police, he has a mania for setting fire to
places, discovering the fire and then
taking credit for his vigilance and
activity.
Ten more bodies were found in the
ruins of the Lantern works to-day, max
ing thirty-iive bodies recovered.