The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-07
THE DAY AFTER THE FIRE.
The Place Where It Started Yet a
Matter of Doubt.

AeSeNSA u COGbbs
Two engines were kept busy all of yes
terday pouring water upon the ruins of
Mondays fire, which still smouldered in
places. Large numbers of people visited
the ruins and watched the city workmen,
under the direction of Assistant Marshal
Kelly, tear down most of the dangerous
portions of the walls. Almost the entire
western wall was pulled down with the
aid of ropes and pulleys.
The fire was still a general subject of
conversation, its origin and the work Of
I the fremen being the main points of the
discussion. There is now little doubt
that the fire originated among the sack
ing in the eastern erd of the Wilcox
q Gibbs Guano Company's shed, adlOin-
ing the rear end of the Savannah Grocery
| COmpany's building.
The fire is believed to have been caused
by carelessness on the part of the en-
plOyes of the gUano company
Mr.. j. w. Davis, cashier of the Savan-
nah Grocery Company, said yesterday
that he passed the guano shed, which was
just west of the rear of the grocery COM
Dany's bui ding, at 6;45 o'clock Monday
morning, and ne saw several negroes sit
ting around fire Just inside Of the shed.
They were smoking and laughing and
| talking, and appeared to be waiting to go
to work at Z O'clock Mr.. j. G DeIIettre,
of the Savannah Grocery Company, said
that the blaze originated just where Mr.
Davis saw the negroes sitting around the
fire
1t is evident that the fire began either
from scattered Goals from this fire, around
which the workmen were sitting, or from
sparks dropped among the sacking from
the pipe of one of the workmen. Mr.
DeLettre said that when the smoke first
penetrated the Bay street floor he ran
across to the River street end of the
building and down to the third floor
which was filed with lard. There was
no fire on that floor then. He
ran down to the floor below
the second from River street There was
no fire there but he could see the flames
from the guano shed leaping up towards
| the windows of the third floor, where the
lard was stored. Two porters on the
| second floor were dashing water from
buckets against the windows. Seeing this
could do no good, MIR. DeLettre called off
the men and made his way out of the
building, which was already filled with
smoke. He is satisfied that the flames
made their entry almost Immediately to
the lard room on the third floor and prob
ably also to the basement Immediately ad-
joining the burning shed.
The shed in the rear of the grocery
building, where some thought the fire
OIlBiudJGu, was uIleu WIN Sdlb, WQlCn is
non-Com bustible. The sacking even was
burned of of only a portion of the salt
There was small amount Of straw scat
tered among the salt, which had been
used for packing the salt on shipboard.
mis- was thoroughly saturated with salt
| and would not have burned freely. In
fact, 1t was noticed yesterday in inspect
ing the ruins that some of the straw APP
peared to be only half burned, which
4 yvnIIld ha va haaV, ba haA
| exposed to the full fury of the flames.
There has been some criticism of Chief
Puder and the officers of the fire depart
meGt for the manner in which they han
died the fire. 1t is acknowledged on all
sides that the firemen worked with
| braveryand determination throughout, but
| it is claimed that their efforts were mis-
directed
Chief Puder may have had very good
reasons for not centering his force on
| River street. There was very little room
there for the firemen to work, the whole
| space in the rear, clear to the
river front, being taken up with
| the building and sheds of tire guano com.
pany. The rear of the grocery company
| building, which was in flames, was five
stories high, and was very difficult to get
| at in the small space in which the iremen
would have had to work.
! The construction of the building was
very favorable to the progress of the fire
and with the inhammable material which
| it found to feed upon, it would have
! been very difficult to keep the fire
| from crossing River street, even
with the very best of work
! Another reason which deferred Chief
| Puder from putting more men to work in
the rear was the fear of falling walls. In
! speaking to a MORNING NEWS reporter
| during the progress of the fire, he said he
| knew the construction of the buildings
and that the walls were partly
upon old foundations, and ne was not
willing to expose his men to the risk of
being caught under the walls, which
might cave in at any time.
1t is generally acknowledged that
the fremen would have saved the
Ferst building had it not
been for the accident of the fire wall from
the adjoining building crushing in the
roof and exposing the whole upper floor
to the fury of the flames, which were
driven in that direction by the wind.