The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-04-20
BIG FIRE
The Flames do Great Damage In New
York CITY.

The FLAMES do Great Damage In New
York CITY.
New YoRR. April ia fire started
+ I'm the W j Wilcox IS Co.'S lard ami oil
/ factory. ON the North river between
+ Fify-uinth and SiXticth streets about
= o'clock this afternoon II soon de-
/ -fr0yed the building and spread 90 thc
+ Vanderbilt grain elevator, adjoining
The dock az the foot of fifty-ninth
street is being burned up
AZ p. NJ. ihc fire which destroyed
the Wilcox lard factory had also dee
-troycd the New York Central Elevator
A. and Elevator b was burning one
workman had been killed, one was miss
iug. several had been injured, and a fire.
man bad his leg broken. The loss thus
far viii exceed Sl.jOoO00.
The fire started ON the ground floor of
.he Fairbanks Lard Refinery formerly
belonging 10 the W j. Wilcox Lard
Company. building two hundred le
square. stretching from Fiiiy-niuth to
+ SIxticth street, and facing North river
The building was old. and soaked with
grease. and flames quickly cnyclOped the
whole structure The one hundred and
fifty employees found escape bv the stair
way cut off, aud most of them had 90
lump from windows. Many were in
iurcd. and one was killed outright
The building which contained also the
ROssitcr stores was soon beyond saving
The blaze was most imposing specta-
Gle The six-story structure was soon
DESTROYED Meanwhile the cii0its of the
a. HIIHHH tINl Hlf lad
0ppOsite the factory. belonging 10 tine
New York Central Railway Company
had been fruitless. and the great
structures were soon ahlaze. The eleya-
tors were SD situated rs to be difficult of
access by hremcn A company of The
lremen, however, got into the railroad
wards. but could do little effective work.
The fre-boats working from the
river side, aided by number of tugs be-
longing TO the New \ lork Central, were
able 10 DO more, but not save the build
ing
When the walls of the factory fell, an
immense quantity of goods that had been
packed i'm the ROssiter stores fell out
wards TO Sixtieth street, blocking the
thOroughfare and preventing the fire
men from doing further work through
that channel There never was fire i'm
this city before. at which the work of the
hremen counted for so little. IL was
impossible TO make headway against
such odds The streams thrown both
from the land and river, seemed
ridiculous The elevators were
each about 32j feet by 12j
feet. and capacity of over 100000
q al tlfu
yatOr 4 contained only about lOO,OO
bushels of oats. and elevator Is "a smaller
quantity of barley, making the total
value of the contents not over SlOOOOO
The buildings cost respectively 100000
and $500 600 when built thirteen years
ago. large part of the cost being for
the foundations, which are probably not
totally ruined The New Ork Central
Railroad Company also owned the lac
tory building in which the fire originated.
They leased it to Fairbanks. IL was worth
about 100000 The losses on contents are
not accurately known. but Fairbanks
loss IS estimated al 100000 and that OF
Rossiter Is Co. $ customers, comprising
large number of merchants, at S2jO,OOO.
The owners of the goods are probably
fully insured. and R0ssiter x Co. them
selves lose but little Fairbanks is also
said To- be fully insured and the railroad
company kept it, property well covered
The fire lasted from about 3 o'clock
until 9, and was witnessed by fully 20
600 people.
Tie workman killed by jumping from
the window of the factory was Henry
Beninr single of 6,O94 Tenth avenue.
The wOrkmcn injured, so far as their
names could be learned. are John JOhn-
son. back injured. Charles Brown, severe
injuries to the head. Two fircmen were
prostrated by the hcat-W illiam j. Noble
and l.. II Tobin While looking at the
fire from window of the house 5il west
Fiftv-seventh street, Mary hurry, al
aged woman, lost her balance and iell 10
the pavement, twenty feet below, and
her skull was fractured. She was taken
20 the Roosevelt Hospital
The piers and pierheads connected
with the elevators system were oil course
badly damaged and rendered temporarily
useless. and some freight which they
contained was destroyed. Mr.. Charles
NJ. Pearsall. who was experimenting the
work of putting in the new machinery
al the factory when the ire broke out,
think the flames originated in the engine
room in the basement He thinks il
marvellous that the men on the upper
floors escaped There were three i'm
mense yats, containing 100000 gallons OF
melted lard aud cotton-seed oil. and
when the flames reached them the mix
ture exploded. throwing the burning
fluid i'm all directions. The employees had
no chance to save themselves, except by
jumping from the windows. Many esti-
mates place the loss far above S2,OOO,OOO'
and some as high as S4O0OOOO The po-
lice estimate is S3jO,OOO. The property
of the Union Stock-l ards Company was
not seriously damaged, owing TO The di-
I ....,;,.,, ,f tIa wind being favorable