The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-17
OIL WORKS BURNED.
TIE TIDE WATER COMPANY DAM
AGED $4,000.

/ AGEO 0AOsOOO.
| Fifty Thousand Gallons of OIL Go Up
in Smoke-The Compsny's Lubricat-
ing Department on East Broad Street
Totally Destroyed-The Fire Depart
msnt's Hard Work-The Compary's
Loss Fully Covered by Insurance..
The lubricating department OF the Tide
Water Oil Company, on East Broad street
and the Savannah, Florida and Western
railway, was burned yesterday afternoon
between $50 and 8 o'clock.
The loss includes the 3-story CORFU
gated iron building, 60x1OO feet, with
400 barrels OF refined lubricsting oil, an
the engine aud boiler room, the barrel
cleaning department and all the machinery
in the building. The loss is about SIC, 900
fully covered by insurance. The 400 bar
rels of oil we're on the top 1oor, and con-
tanned fifty gallons each.
The fire broke out about $3.50 o'clock Ia
the lubricating building on the rail-
side. The employees of the works had
not left the building when the
fire started and they promptly got to
work with their own fire engine and ap-
paratus. Their efforts were of little avail,
however, aud the fire soon caught the OIL
tanks and spread beyond their control. Some
one on Liberty street seeing the blaze
turned in an alarm from box rs at Liberty
| and Price streets.
This was a great mistake, as it pre-
vented the turning in Of the alarm
from a station near the fire and
caused the department several minutes de-
/ lay in reaching the lire. Finding It was not
| in the neighborhood Of Liberty and Price
streets the firemen went down East Broad
street in the direction of the blaze, as 1t is
the only street running north and south
| paved south of Liberty on that side OF the
| city.
THE FIREMEN's HARD RUN.
The East Broad street pavement ends at
Jones street and the firemen were left to
pull through the heavy sand to Hall street.
/ 1t was very severe work upon the horses
| and the engines were much slower in reach
| ing the fire than If they had been running
upon paved street Engine No. stalled
| 10 the heavy sand, and the horses had to be
taken out from the large truck and hitched
| in front OF the engine horses to get it to the
| fire.
The whole building was in flames and
| burning furiously when the firemen reached
the scene. The wind was from the south
and was blowing the flames directly toward
the large gas tank of the Mutual Gas Light
Company, whose works adIoin
the oil company's on the north.
| The fremen soon got to work and had
half a dozen streams playing on the fire in
short order. They devoted their efforts to
combining the fire to the iron building and pre-
venting Its communicating to the cooperage
| department and other buildings OF the COM
pany, and those Of the Mutual Gas Light
Company close by. The firemen did effective
| work and received unstinted praise from
the officers of the company present and the
crowd generally, The heat from the fire
was 50 great as to keep the large crowd
which had gathered on East Broad street
on the opposite side from the fire.
THE GAS WORKS THREATENED.
If the flames had reached the cooper
| shop and store rooms Of the company there
would have been a tremendous confagration
and the Mutual Gas Light Company's works
would almost certainly have gone, as the
wind was bio wing in that direction. The
cooper shop caught fire once, but the fire
was quickly extinguished. In half an hour
the building burned to the ground, and the
imminent danger was over. The firemen
| remained on the scene, however, until 9
o'clock.
The whole works of the Tide Water Oil
| Company on East Broad street are fully
covered by S26. 500 insurance in John Sulli-
van & Co.'s agencies and 81, 500 with c. A.
Reitze. General Manager J. w. Moore is
absent from the city, but Vice President
Eber Blodgett estimated the loss at some
thing over $4,000.
The difficulty of the firemen in reaching
the fire on account Of the heavy unpaved
streets through which the engines had to go
illustrates the necessity of paving East Broad
street. south to Anderson. for the safety of
the property owners in the southern portion
of the city. Chief Puder said last night that
the horses of the department were seriously
injureds by their heavy pull through the
sand.
The works of the Tide Water Oil Company
on East Broad street, were burned in Sep
tember, 1888, at a loss of over 500, 900. The
company will begin the work OF rebuilding
at once. It has a large refinery in New
York, which will be drawn upon for sup
plies until the works here are rebuilt, and
| also have a large stock on hand here In the
stock building, which will supply all orders
until the New York shipments arrive.