River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-07-11
A BIG BREWERY BURNED.


The Immense ESTABLISHMENTS of the FaIk
Jung & Berchert Company at MiIwau.
kee, Wis, Entirely Destroyed-The Loss
VIII Reach Nearly sI.OOO.OOO, and In
ciudes the Consumption by the Fire
Fiend of $1,000 Barrels of Beer.
MILWAUKEE, July 5.-The entire brewery
plant OF the Faulk, Jung & Borchert Brew
ing Company burned to the ground Thurs
day afternoon. The loss is $500 Cos, and the
insurance less than s40U,0 In the matter
of area and financial loss the fire is the big
gest in the history of Milwaukee. The
plant covered an area of about three acres
on the Muskwango road in the Menominee
valley, Just outside the city limits. It was
the original plant of the Falk Brewing Com
pany Less than year ago the Jung 4
Borchert Company abandoned their plant
and consolidated with the Falk Company. the
capital stock of the consolidated company
being $1,000, 600. Since the consolida.
ton extensive improvements Of the
old Falk plant were made, including
an addition TO the man brewery OF
a brick building l46x257 feet, an elevator
40xlO0 feet, ~ feet high. with 4 ca
pacity of l25, 900 bushels of malt, and large
engine-h house. In the latter were six new
boilers and a new so, O0Oice machine with
capacity for making 100 tons of ice daily.
Additions and improvements cost S1OO,OW
and increased the capacity TO 6OO, 600 bar
rels of beer year Three hundred mer
We're employed
The brewery had been shut down, and
few men were about the establishment
when the fire was discovered in the interior
of the new malt-hOuse at / o'clock in the
afternoon. The brewing company MAN.
tanned fire company of its own, and as soon
as possible they We're at work Being out
side the city limits. the brewery depended
on an artesian well for its water supply.
but when the fire company attic npted &c
work they found that the water supply
was for some reason shut of from the
hydrai is and they were left help
less. On receipt OF a telephone mes.
sage Chief Foley dispatched four en-
gines from the city. but, as they were
obliged to set on the river bank, it was halt
an hour before the first stream of water
was thrown on the flames In the mean
time the fire had spread to all of the ad-
joining buildings, all of which were in
flames before the frcIllen 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 one after
another the explosion OF seven large tanks
of ammonia, used in the manufacture OF
ice Il was most remarkable that
not single person was injured
through the explosions Heavy pieces
of iron fell in the immediate vi
cinity, but the intense heat had kept the
thousands of spectators az a safe distance
When the fire had burned itself out every
one OF the buildings was in ruins excepting
the storehouse, where the firemen cOncen-
trated their efforts. Here was stored =. OJG
barrels of beer but as the building was
Quilted, the beer stored there is probably
all spoiled by the heat In the immense
bottling house, which was totally de
stroyed were 600 barrels of beer in
bottles ready for shipment to the South
The buildings destroyed were the
malt-house, elevator, brew-house, the
engine house with its new $4,000 ice
machine, storehouse and bottling works
Falk's residence and the stables with THEN
many horses and wagons alone acre saved
Where the office was the vault now stands
alone.
Mr.. Falk, president of the company
thinks the loss will reach - 100000, but
Mr.. Borchert, the secretary, says it will
be between 100000 and $4,000, with
an insurance of between $780, eco and
$780, e0 He was not able to give the
exact amount until the books in the vault
could be reached 1t Is not known as
yet 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 as long as it viii be
necessary. The origin of the fire. which
was first discovered in the malt-hOuse, is
unknown