The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-04-26
SWEPT BY FIRE


Several Squares on North River. New York
City, Licked Up by Flames = Eleva-
TORS Lard Rehneries and Other FactO~
rIes Among the RuiDs-TwO Million Dol
lars win Hardly Cover the LosS-Two
Men Killed and several Injured-An I'm
posing Spectacle.
NEw YORK, April 20-The most de-
structive fire that has visited this city for
years completely swept the east bank of
the North river from Fifty ninth to
Sixty fifth street yesterday afternoon.
1t destroyed more than a million and
half dollars worth of property belonging
to the New York Central Railroad Com
pany, and at least half a million dollars
worth belonging to n. Z. Fairbanks, of
Chicago, the Rossiter stores and others.
The fire started on the ground floor of
Fairbanks lard refinery, formerly belong
ing to the j. w. Wilcox Lard Company,
building two hundred feet square, stretch
ing from Fifty ninth to Sixtieth streets,
and facing North river. 1t seems to have
originated at a spot where some workmen
were putting in new lard-cooling appa-
ratus, but the exact cause can not be
learned. The building was old and
soaked with grease, and the flames quick
Iy enyeloped the whole structure.
The $50 employees found escape by stair
way cut off, and most OF them had to jump
from the windows. Many were injured,
and one was killed outright. The excite
ment was so great and the policemen had
so much to do that it was impossible to
| secure the names Of the injured. The un-
| fortunates were hurried away to hospitalJ
/ as rapidly as possible. The police kept
back a crowd of women, many of whom
| had relatives in the building.
TSe building, which contained also the
ROssiter stores, was soon beyond saving.
4 L
and attracted the attention OF people in
| Jersey City and thousands of passengers
on ferry boats crossing the river. The
| six-story structure was soon destroyed.
| Meanwhile the efforts of the fremen to
save the grain elevators opposite the
| factory, belonging to the New York Cen
trail Railroad Company, had been fruit
/ less, and the great structures were in a
| blaze. All the fire engines between
Fourteenth street and Harlem were on
the spot, but the elevators were so situ-
ated as to be difficult of access by the
| fremeh. Twenty-seven sunken tracks of
1 the New York Central railway, and a line
| Of stock-yard Enclosures interviewed be.
| tween the fire and the elevators, and the
only way to reach the buildings was along
| Sixteth street, where tho heat was too
| great for the fremen to live in it. A
/ company of the fremen, however, got
1
/ there was only six-inch water-pipe
there, and with the engines so far away
| they could do little effective work.
The fire. boats working from the river
side, aided by a number of tugs belong
| ing to the New York Central, were able
to do more, but not enough to save the
buildings.
The employees kept the hose in the
/ building playing as long as they could
remain, but at last they had to abandon it.
Elevator "a" was the first to go. and
| the flames then communicated to EIeva-
tor 'B." The sheds of the stock-yards
/ next fed the flames, and the conhagratiOn
| spread rapidly northward.
! When the walls of the factory fell an
immense amount Of goods that had been
L packed in the Rossiter stores fell out
ward on Sixtieth street, blocking the thor
oughfare and preventing the fremen from
doing further work through that channel.
/ There never was a fire in the city before
at which the work of the fire department
! counted for so little. 1t was impossible
to make headway against such odds. The
] streams thrown both from land and water
| seemed ridiculous.
The elevators were each about 325 feet
| by 125 feet, and had a capacity Of over
million bushels apiece, but they were al
most empty. Elevator ga" contained
only 100, 600 bushels of oats, and elevator
/ "B' a smaller quantity of barley, making
the total value of the contents not over
! 100000. The buildings cost, respectively,
/ $50, 600 and 100000 when built, thirteen
! years ago, large part Of the cost being
for the foundations, which are probably
not totally ruined.
The New York Central Railroad Com
pany also owned the factory building in
which the fire originated. They leased it
to Fairbanks. 1t was worth $1,000, 600.
| The losses on contents are not accurately
| known, but Fairbanks loss is about $780,,
900, and that of Rossiter & Co.'s custom
ers, comprising a number of merchants,
$3.50, 900. The owners of goods are prOba-
blay fully insured, and Rossiter &
Co. themselves lost but little. Fairbanks
is also said to be fully insured, and the
railroad company kept its property we'll
covered. After the fire had swept along
the shore to Sixty-sixth street, it stopped
for want of further material to feed upon.
The fire lasted from about three O'Clock
until nine, and was witnessed by vast
throng. The police estimated the crowd
contained over two hundred thousand
people. The sight was a magnificent one,
and there was nothing for blocks around
to Obstruct the view. After dark the sky
was brightly lighted up all over the city,
miles away from the fire.
The workman killed by jumping from a
window was Henry Benning, single, OF
No. 694 Tenth avenue. The workmen in
juIed, as far as names could be learned,
are: John Johnson, back injured, and
| Chas. Brown, severe injuries to head.
Two firemen, VIM. J. Noble and E. H.
Tobin. were prostrated by heat. While
looking at the fire from a window of house
| No. 547 West Fifty-seventh street, Mary
Murray, an aged woman, lost her balance
and fell to the pavement, twenty feet be-
low, and her skull was fractured. She
was taken to the Roosevelt Hospital.