The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-02-16

Inc OrlSln OF the Firo Shrouded In
MVstery-A List of Leases and the
Insurance, the Latter Being Particularly
Small.
The walls of the magnificent Odd Eel.
lows temple in Canton, o., have contain.
ed many secrets, and the blackened
and charred remnants of the grand edi-
fee, which was the pride OF Canton Odd
FelloWe, in fact OF Odd Fellows in oil
parts OF tho state, now contain another
secret, the secret of the origin OF the fire
which devastated the home of the breth-
rem in this city. Aside from the great
property loss by the destruction of the
temple, there were Casualties which may
yet result in the loss of life.
At about l 80 o'clock Officer Tom Briss
bin, on duty in police headquarters, was
startled by cry of fire, and ran out OF
the headquarters to Investigate Tbere
was light in the second floor of the o Id
FeJlows' building, situated on the south.
west corner of South Cleveland avenue
and West Seventh street, directly oppo-
site the city hnll. Aa coon az the fire had
been located, the officer fastened to the
Central Eugine house and gave the
alarm. The Central boys responded
promptly, and had not gotten directly 20
work before au alarm from box 35, on the
city hall peal out an alarm which ava
kened the cltizens.
Emil Gabriel Of No. 81 Liberty street, in
company With number of relatives, had
been to little social gathering at the
home Of Gust Rombach, ut No, 15O North
Plum strset. and was on his way nome.
he saw the fire in the building aud with
out further adO,msdo 3 run for the Public
Square. Ho had no key, but quick blow
broke the glass on the sidG of the box and
the alarm Wa3 turned in st once. II did
not require general alarm, for all the
department Is under Instructions to re-
spond To box IS without question:.
Before the fire companies bad all a-riv-
ed there vas o sudden outbuTst of fl anna,
which mounted to the roof in a very short
time andit was seen at once that all
| efforts 10 save the building from being at
astpHrHally destroyed would be flu
! tile.
Fire companies did not know just where
| the fire was and every body made q run
| for the Square. John Schlafley Of Schu-
| macher's shoe store stood on the Square
| and informed the flremen where to go.
Ii did not take long for the fire to get
| headway, The probability 10 that it had
| been burning for three or four hours be-
| fore il was discovered. Some parties had
| gone past the building about O'clock and
| had smelled smoke. 1t was most notice
| able near the West TuschEswas street
| corner OF OleVeIhuu avenue, Dut no IRE
| could be located at that time.
Shortly after the first alarm was turned
| in tire flames burst out in nearly every
| part OF the building, and people who had
| looked out OF windows, saw.no light and
| had turned over for another snooze, were
surprised to hear another alarm. Then
| the heavens became red with the glare of
the flames and soon several thousand
| people were around the burning structure.
| Almost before tina fire had fair START,
| THE CRASH OF WALLS
came. Aud it came wiIaou. any
| premonition. Firemen were close to
the building and were playing on
| the burning structure when all of { sud.
den things commenced to give way and
the whole front of the building bulged ou,,
| and tons of brick, mortar and buildiSg
| construction fell with crash. Ii appear
that tho interior of the building was
practically gutted before the fire was dis
| covered, which accounts for the unusual
occurrence of the walls falling 80 soon.
There were at that time about 10 flremen
working about the exterior. huge
ladder from the hook and ladder truck
had been jointed and six men were en-
gagged in putting ii up to the third story
window on the east side.
| A small ladder to the second story was
occupied by three men, with Captain
Mesnar of the Central Engine House al
the top of the ladder preparing to mans
pulAte the hose which was being handed
up,
At thia time there were about % people
on the sidewalks, Chief Ohllgar was
near by and while looking ES the building
observed tEe turrets Wnlca adorned the
| roof, sWnyiDgs Be was aware that these
| additions 20 the main structure were com
| posed OF heavy material and that Should
one fall on the men, death to any persou
under the heavy Btonss would be the
result. When, therefore, he
SAW THE swAYING MASS
he gave the alarm to the men. The six
men with the big ladder had just got tht
ladder in the air and had therefore no
yet placed il against the building. They
dropped the ladder when they saw dan
ger imminent and I'm for their lives. They
were not an instant too soon, No soope'
had the ladder fallen than il was com
pletely covered with debris. The walli
had given way under the weight of th'
abnormslly heavy roof.
How the men escaped from the othal
ladder ia time to save themselves from
certain death is a mystery. But they go
down speedily aud the walls just misseC
some of Ehem. There were Others, how
ever, who were not 90 fortunate. Franl
Kelly, minute man from tn
Central engine house was ON the aidewall
uuder tue shadow Of the walls. AS relst
ed by on eye witness, three bricks fel
frst as sort OF warning, but ii wAa Ai
unfortunate warning for Kelly. Two 0
the bricks missed him but the thirt
warned him by striking him on the head
He was knocked down, but scrambled 4
his feet. The delay caused by bein
knocked down was Almost fatal for Kelly
for he could not get away and was GOV
cred with debris. His brother Dave wa
among the first to reach him after tn
cloud of dust had cleared away. Th
firemen, with the assistance of Frii