The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1889-07-11
A BIG BREWERY BURNED.

THE Immense Establishment Of the Falk,
Jung & BercI,crt Company at Miiwau-
kee. WIS. Entirely Best roy cd -1he Loss
Will Reach Nearly $1,000 900, and Inc
ciudes the Consumption by she Fire
| Ficnd ~ $1,000 Barrels Of Beer.
| MILWAUKEE. July 5-The entire brewery
| plant Of the Faulk, Jung 4 Bcrchcrt Brew
ing Company burned 10 the ground Thurs
day afternoon The loss is sSW,COa, and the
insurance less than s4op,Vu In the matter
OF area and financial loss the fire II the big
| gest In the history Of Milwaukee. The
plant covered an area Of about three acres
on the Muskwango road in the Msnominee
valley, inst outside the city limits It was
the original plant Of the Faik Brewing COM
pany. Less than a year ago the Jung Il
Borchert Company abandoned thslr plant
and consolidated with the Falk Company the
capital stock Of the consolidated company
being s1,u0.0o. Since the consolida-
tion extensive improvements of the
old Falk plant were made. Including
an addition to the man brewery OF
brick building liGxg,7 feet an elevator
4uxlOO feet, ~ feet high, with a ca
pacity ~ -, ,0OO bushels of malt, and large
cngin1 lonso. In the latter were six new
boilers and q new SO, 900 ice machine with q
1 j.
| Additions and improvements ccst sloV, ON
and increased the capacity to $4,000 bar.
rcls Of beer a year. Three hundred men
were employed
The brewery had been shut down, and
] few men were about the establishment
when the fire was discovered in the interior
1 of the new malt-hnUse ut l o'clock in tho
| afternoon The brewing company main-
tanned a fire company OF its own, and as soon
as possible they were at work. Being out
side the city limits. the brewery depended
1 on an artcsian well for its water supply.
but when the fire company attempted to
work they found that the water supply
I was for some reason shut OF from the
| hydral IL, and they were left help
| less TN receipt of telephone mes
sage Chief Foley dispatched four en-
gines from the city, but, rs they were
obliged to set on the river bank it was hall
an hour before the first stream OF water
/ was thrown on the tiameA In the mean
| time the fire had spread to all OF the adj
! joining buildings, all Of which were in
flames before the firemcn from the city got
/ to work.
| series of explosions followed each
other as one after the other the six new
| boilers burst, and then followed ono after
another the explosion Of seven large tanks
of ammonia. used in the manufacture OF
ice. 1t was most remarkable that
not single person was injured
through the explosions Heavy pieces
/ of iron fell in the immediate vi
entity. but the intense heat had kept tllg
! thousands of spectators ut safe distance.
i When the fire had burned itself out every
one OF the buildings was in ruins excepting
| the storehouse, where tho tremen coneen-
trated their efforts. Hese was stored j. .0Jo
/ barrels of beer, but, as the building was
gutted, the beer stored there is probably
all spoiled by the heat In the immense
bottling house. which was totally de-
stroyed, were 60 barrels OF beer in
bottles ready for shipment to tho South.
Tho buildings destroyed were the
lnalt-housc, elevator, brew-house. the
engine house with its new sjU.uU ics
machine. storehousc and bottiny wcrks
Falk's residence and the stables with their
many horses and wagons alone were saved
Where the office was the vault now stands
alone.
Mr.. Falk. president Of the company.
thinks the loss will reach .l.oco,Uoo, but
Mr.. Borchert, the secretary. says il will
be between $aoO,OtD and sS0,0N. with
an insurance of between S:aV,OUU and
siooWO. lie was not able to give the
exact amount until the books in the vault
could be reached. 1t is not known as
vet that the company will rebuild, rs
| the FIRE seriously cripples them. Before
| the fire had burned itself out every other
brewing company in the city had offered
assistance, and arrangements were made
with two of the breweries to supply the
| company's customers rs long as it will be
necessary The origin OF the fire, which
was iirst discovered III the mait-honse, Is