Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-01
BURNING GARBAGE.
The Factory Goes Up in Fire and
Flames Today.
THE AFFAIR An ACCIDENT,
The Much Discussed Nuisance Ends
in Black Smoke.
THE LOSS VERY HEAVY

The garbage factory at the foot of South
Capitol street went up in smoke this morn
ing.
Shortly after II 80 o'clock this morning
Foreman Morrison, in charge of the mills
where the tankage of the garbage is treat
ed and changed into fertilizer. noticed a
spark fly from the grinder wheel of the
mil. A piece of steel had in some manner
got into the machinery and the friction
caused a spark, which quickly ignited the
dry tankage.
Foreman Morrison ran for a bucket of
water. but by the time he returned the en-
tire lower floor was ablaze.
Upstairs were the millers. totally obliv-
ious to the danger threatening them below.
A moment later they were panic stricken to
see the hungry flames burst through the
floor, They ran to the steps. but the
flames cut off retreat in that direction. All
avenues of escape were cut off save the
windows and toward them the frightened
workmen fought their wav.
1t was a good leap to the ground. perhaps
twenty-five feet, yet they did not hesitate
moment in jumping.
The blaze spread with amazing rapidity
and the men had to hurry for their lives.
The flames seemed to spread over the CELL
ings and swept through the walls as II the
structure was built of cardboard. The men
jumped down the stairs without waiting
for their coats. 1t was a close call for
many Of them, but no one was hurt save
one of the colored workmen, who wrenched
his ankle.
telephone and soon the fire laddies were
on hand. Chief Paris led the assault, but
soon found that he would have to call his
reserve force out to assist in Quenching
the hungry flames. which were threaten
ing the adjoining property Of the Washing
ton Asphalt and Tile Company.
second alarm was sent in Immediately,
but before assistance had arrived the entire
structure was afiame. The factory was
seen to be doomed.
Engines Arrive.
When the employees i'm the Office discov-
cred the fire and telephoned to headquar-
tiers No. Engine Company was notified by
telephone. They had just returned from
an all-night battle with the jackson City
fire when they were compelled to start on a
run of mile to the burning garbage fac
tory. When they reached the scene the
whole place was in a blaze except the
building on the extreme western edge of
the property. and they confined their ef-
fCrts TO preventing the spread of the
flames. The paving block factory to the
north of the garbage buildings seemed I'M
danger for while, but good work saved 1t.
general alarm was turned in. but by
the time the additional engines arrived
there was but a blazing heap OF ruins.
The firemen did good work to prevent the
spread of the flames. and worked under
considerable difficulties
Fighting the Flames.
The engines were run into the yard south
of the works. and backed down the short
l>c,, IL tka l.r.
were able to pump the river wate- directly,
without tapping any of the mains. By this
means there were five steamers concentrat-
ed at the hottest part of the fire. These
were numbers 2. 4. q. and 8. Three others
tapped hydrants South Capitol
street. The yard was network
Of pipes and the firemen had more trouble
lodging their own Streams than the biazes
The materials were infiammable that
they mostly went off in the first gust of
flame. and there was little TO- the hose men
to do but to pick of the jets Of fire that
spurted out here and there.
There was one fierce fight however,
against bed of fire that was discovered in
the loft of a warehouse on the end of the
wharf. This was filled with phosphate
which. being very fine and dry burned al
most like gas whenever Ii broke out in
dust. A strong stream was played on this
for the purpose of scattering Ii. AS the
water threw masses of 1t out into the air
II seemed to scatter fire almost by sponta-
neous combustion. and the effect was that
Of brilliant fireworks.
This was subdued after a while merely
by virtue of the supply of phosphate be-
coming exhausted.
| By o'clock the worst of the fire had
been wholly subdued. and there were only
few spits of flame coming forth from
fences and joists.
Like finder box.
1.-The whole thing was like tinder box"
said Chief Paris, land nothing that We
could do would save the place. 1t went
like fash
The character of the materials caused
the most deplo-able stencil to spread forth
and the westerly wind fortunately drifted
it eastward towlrd the navy yard. Had
| there been a wind from the south the good
folks Of Washington would all be elevating
| their noses this evening.
The Engineers Story.
The engineer Of the building. Mr. c. c.
Roller said:
| The first 1 knew of the fire was the sight
of the whole eastern end in a blaze. Ny
first thought was to save my battery of
boilers. l called for help, and the men
helped me to draw the fires. We hardly
had time to draw the fire from under the
last boiler when the engine room was in a
blaze, and we had to run for 1t. The
I
the fire was drawn and the gauges open
prevented disastrous explosion"
| The Loss.
| Mr.. Bailey, the superintendent, said:
| Il cannot estimate yet what our loss will
be. The plant is worth about $4,000 and
we had about $1,000 worth Of material in
| the place.
| Il think we may have as much as $35 600
insurance on the place, although 1t will be
| impossible to form any kind Of idea yet
| Il think the handling Of the garbage will
not be interfered with. We may have to
take 1t down the river. however"
An Accident.
Mr.. A. Morrison. superintendent Of the
garbage plant. told Star reporter that the
fire was the result Of an accident, and could
not have been avoided. The dry tankage.
he said, had been put in the machines to
be ground. and he thought that by some ac-
cident a piece Of iron had been put in with
1t. When the machine was started, the
iron could not be ground with the tankage,
and the friction, he thought, set fire to the
tankage. The wood work being saturated
| with grease, there was no way possible to
avoid the spreading of the flames or even
keep them under control until the fire de-
partment arrived. Mr.. c. c. Roller, the en-
gineer, he said, discovered the fire and
turned in the alarm.