Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-29
BLAZING HOGS.
Large Packing House at the Chi
cago Stockyards on Fire.
Over Eight Thousand Carcasses Of Hogs
Burn Like Oil-Water has 10
Effect-Heat Intense.
The Buildings Of Frame an Easy Prey to the
Flames-The Loss $500 900, Fully
Covered by Insurance.

CHICAGO, IT., Sept. 2s.-Fowler Brothers,
packing house at the stockysrds was damaged
BY fire this morning to the amount OF $3.50. 900.
The FIRE originated at 1880 O'Clock in the morn
Ing In the packing room or the engine
room adjoining, it is not known
definitely which, and no cause Is
assigned for the FIRE. The firemen worked
against obstacles from the start. Water had
little effect on the greasy-soaSed floor and the
IRE soon reached the tank room, where thirty
two tanks of lard were located. These ex :
ploded. one after another, with loud reports and
the boiling lard fed the flames more hercely'
The heat was so intense the hremen were COM
PEELED
To WORK At DISTANCE.
The packing room is about l5Oxl50 feet. The
whole interior in flames when the tiremen
reached the scene in response to the first arm
The flames spread to the cooling room adloln-
hogs hanging there. In the room were See9
hogs freezing End they burned like oil. Water
was useless in fighting the fire and it seemed
not hing could be done to stop the
about two hours after the fire started and the
fire became more furious. The blaze lighted
lighter than day. Scores of firemen were di-
recting hundreds of streams OF water on the
burning acres of lard and meat with no effect.
About this time the flames reached
A LOT OF sALTPETRE
stored above the packing room and the fume
from the burning chemicals was awful. 1t
tered their nosIrils and eyes and almost made
them wild with pain. The atmosphere was sat
uraled with it.
AT 6 O'Clock it was seen to be impossible to ex
tinguish the burning pork, and water was thrown
it to keep the fro down as much as
possible 1t will have to burn itself out,
and 1t will probably he two days yet before 1t is
entirely ex inguished. In the basement OF the
entire building ored an immense amount
of salt meats. THIS caught fire, ana while the
flames were not furious and we're prevented from
blazing high, they still kept eating the sides,
shoulders and hams that were
PLACED IN SOLID TIERS.
The roof and floors covered the smouldering
meats and kept the men from reaching them,
and they were busy all day using axes and nam
mers for removing the mass OF de-
bris that hindered their work. The
building that burned is part of an entire plant
that had been recently erected. The whole was
q patched up affair and at the present time ad-
ditions were being built The entire series of
building was OF wood and very intiammable.
The coo ing rooms, where the freshly slaugh-
tered hogs were hanging, were lined with saw
dust similar to ice box. This
men and 100 girls were employed By the COM
pany. The loss is entirely covered by insur-
ance. mostly in foreign companies. The plant
was insured for SI,5lQ COO. Lloyd company Of
Manchester, England, had four policies OF $685.
700 each.
LOSSES AND INSURANCE.
The loss is divided about as follows: On
machinery, S125 coo; on dressed hogs, SIS, 900;
While part of the buildings are totally de-
stroyed, the loss is small, because
the buildings were cheaply constructed. Four
large engines, three of them used for
helped to swell the loss of machinery. Esti-
mates of the loss vary from $500 OOJ to $780, 0OJ,
but the exact amount viii deperd on the amount
of meats stored in the building and destroyed.