St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-09
over A MILLION LOST
Cincinnati Visited by a De-
StPuctive and Costly
Blaze.
Furs, Clothing and Pictures
Converted to Ashes by
the Flames.
The Total Loss Expected to
Foot Up a Million and a
Quarter.
Terrible Experience Of a Ship
and Her Passengers on
the Ocean.

CINCINNATI, o.. July S.-A little
after 10 O'clock tonight came an alarm
of fire, calling relay of engines to
the great building occupied by A. E.
Burkhardt & Co., manufacturers
and wholesale and retail dealers
in furs and fur goods. The building is
at the southeast corner of Elm and
Fourth streets. 1t is the property of
William Hooper. banker and fnancier.
1t was seventy-fve feet wide on
Fourth street, and extended back $50
feet to an alley. Its Fourth street front
is seven stories high and its height on
the alley is eight and a half
stories. 1t also extends two stories
deep under the ground. The build
ing is nearly new, and cost over
100000 to put up. Mr.. Burkhardt add
ed $4,000 in interior adornment within
the last two years. Mr.. Burkhardt
said tonight that he could only
give a rough estimate of the
value of the stock in the
building, and that, he said, was, to the
best of his belief, between 100000 and
100000. In addition to his own i'm
mense stock, he stores great guam
titles OF valuable furs for citi-
zens every summer, and these furs
are all in the burning building. He
knows nothing about his insurance at
the present moment, but it is his habit
to insure well. Mr.. Hooper, the
owner of the building, is also good
insurer. After the start of the
fire in the lower one of the
two cellars, the entire fire department
was soon called out. Dense volumes
of binding smoke at first filled the
streets, aud presently, with sudden
burst,
The Flames Sped Upward
through the building and with incredi-
BILE rapidity shot skyward through the
roof, lighting up the city for half mile
around. Soon the walls began to
crumbe and the building with its
contents became an irretrievable loss.
The fire department devoted themselves
to preventing the spread of the fire. to
adjacent property. The east frontage
on Fourth street was occupied by
Henry Geiershofer & Co., dealers in
clothing and manufacturers. They
estimated their stock at a valuation of
over 100000. Probably Sl25,O00 worth
of their stock is under tarpaulins on the
north side of Fourth, near Race
street, thanks to the emery of the
salvage company. The fire having
started in Burkhardt's establishment at
the corner, gave time to save some of
Geiershofer's goods. The rest will go
with the great Goodman building
to cinders and ashes. Geiershofer'S
mill hn
they have that amount of insurance, so
their loss will be fully covered. The
Elm street wall of the building
has gone down, and the streets
are still throDged with men and women
witnessing the grand spectacle, press
ing on rope barriers drawn across the
streets. The police cleared the
streets of all outsiders near the
tottering walls. At 1920 o'clock
tonight the menacing east wall of
the Hooper building rocked and tot
tered. then leaped down from its dizzy
height onto the roof of the Pape
Manufacturing company's building
next east of it, with roar,
followed by crash after crash,
1t filled the air with binding dust and
made darkness where moment before
was brilliant illumination. Proprietors
of stores were standing at their doors,
some of which were open. The police
came rushing into the darkness OF dust
and shouted: "Close and
lock Your Stores.
every one of you, and watch them we'll"
The Pape Manufacturing company's
building was three-story brick. 1t
was an extensive picture framing
establishment, one of the oldest
and most extensive in the city,
ana 1t carried large stock of pictures,
paintings. engravings and holdings.
The front three-quarters of the build
ing, where the most valuable goods
are kept, was completely ruined.
the cellar, the outer walls were
thrown into the street. ltmay take fire
but it is the Pope Manufacturing COM
pany's loss can hardly be less than $780,,
600 while the loss to the building is
possibly $4,000, as it was very
old. This will swell the aggre-
gate loss to nearly a million
and quarter. The high east cables of
the Hooper building, in leaping down
on to the Pape Company's building
which is crushed, struck the five-story
Steinway Piano building, which was
next east of Pape's and knoked the west
wall of that building. No injury was
visible from Fourth street and it is
hoped that the direct damage to the
Steinways will be light. They carried
about 100000 worth of stock.
Their loss to stock will not
be over $4,000, if so much. At o'clock
the fire seems entirely under control.
Engines will have to work on it all day
tomorrow. Thus far no one has been
hurt, though narrow escapes have been