Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-04-25
SWEPT eY FIRE


|
/ Several Squares on North River. Now York
| City, Licked Up by Flames - Eleva'
tors, Lard Refinerie~ and Other Facto'
| ries Among the RuiDs-TwO Million Dol.
lar. viii Hardly Cover the Loss-Two
Men Killed and Several Injured-An Inn .
| posing Spectacle.
NEW York, April 20.-The most de-
| structiye fire that has visited this city for
| years completely swept the east bank OF
| the North river from Fifty-ninth to
Sixty-ffth 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. K. 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, q
| building two hundred feet square, stretch.
| ing from Fifty ninth to Sixtieth streets,
and facing North river. 1t seems to have
| originated at q 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
ly enveloped the whole structure.
The 100 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 hospitals
as rapidly as possible. The police kept
back crowd of women, many of whom
had relatives in the building.
No sa1, fos, oIa<, %1A
Rossiter stores, was soon beyond saving.
The blaze was an imposing spectacle,
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 tho grain elevators opposite the
factory, belonging to the New York Gen.
trail Railroad Company, had been fruit
less, and the great structures were in
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
firemen. Twenty-seven sunken tracks of
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
SXtleth street, where the heat was too
great for the fremen to live in it. A
company of the fremen, however, got
past and into the railroad yards, but
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 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 Eleva-
tor 3d." The sheds of the stock-yards
next fed the flames, and the confagration
spread rapidly northward.
When the walls of the factory fell an
immense amount Of goods that had been
packed in the Rossiter stores fell out
ward on SiXtieth street, blocking the thor
oughfare and preventing the firemen 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 Roadway against such odds. The
streams thrown both from land and water
seemed ridiculous.
The elevators were each about 325 feet
by 1e5 feet, and had a capacity of over a
million bushels apiece, but they were al
most empty. Elevator ga" contained
only 100, 0c0 bushels of oats, and elevator
"B" smaller quantity of barley, making
the total value of the contents not over
100000. The buildings cost, respectively,
$3.50, 900 and 5000, 700 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 $1,00O,000.
The losses on contents are not accurately
known, but Fairbanks loss is about $780,
300, 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
window was Henry Benning, single, of
No. 694 Tenth avenue. The workmen in
jured, 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 f. H..
Tobin, were Frustrated by heat. While
looking at the fire from window of house
No. 547 West Fifty-seventh street, Mary
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.
An Alledged plot to Assassinate the Cxar,
of Russia.