The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-12
A BLAZING PINE KNOT.
Discovered Just In Time to Prevent
a Disastrous CONFEDERATION.

An Incendiary Attempt to Burn Sui
Z Hvan's Grocery Store and the Ad-
/ joining Buildings "A Holocaust
Would Have Resulted Had the Fire
Not Been Discovered as It Was-A
Mystery Surrounding the Fire.
Fire was discovered on the roof of John
Sullivan's grocery, No. 1873 Congress
street, yesterday morning about o'clock.
1t was first seen by a colored woman, who
lives in a house in Congress street lane
Just over the rear of the store She gave
the alarm, and aroused Mr.. Charles
Brickman, who lives on the third floor of
the building on Congress street, and he
pat the fire out with few buckets Of
water.
There is some mystery connected with
the origin of the fire, which Chief Puder
has been trying to solve, but no definite
conclusion has been arrived at. The
front part of Mr.. SulliYan's store is three
stories high. The second floor above the
store room is occupied as dental rooms
and the third floor is used as residence
and sleeping apartments. From the back
OF the dental rooms is a door opening out
on the roof Of the grocery store. The roof
extends back to building in the rear,
which is occupied by the cOlOred woman
who discovered the fire.
The woman says that the door of her
room, which opens on the lane, was Sc
curely locked and it was impossible for
any one to get in the room through her
house without discovery, and IL was also
impossible to reach the roof from the
street The door leading from the dental
rooms was also locked. Mr.. Brickman
reached the roof from steps on the out
side Of the building TO his rooms above.
The fire originated just on the outside
of the dental rooms on the roof. There
was a large piece of ignited lightwood on
the roof, which is partly covered by
boards to protect the tin. The fire had
burned through the boards, along the
steps leading to the door, and part of
the door frame and sill were burned be-
fore the fire was eXtinguished. Mr.. Sui
ivan, who examined the spot yesterday
morning, thought he could smell kerosene
oil on the boards, and is of the opinion
that some one had poured oil on the place
and then set it on fire.
Chief Puder sa-s he could not distin-
guish the smell but thought the light
wood, which was very resinous, was suf1i-
clent to cause a serious conilagratiOn
within a short time after being set on fire
The woman who first saw the fire and
gave the alarm says she heard some one
on the roof about 3 o'clock in the morn
ing, ana InlukS the nre mad been SmOul-
dering for three hours. II is very
evident that it was the work of an incen-
diary, but as all the doors leading
to the roof were securely locked, and
nothing was disturbed in any of the ad-
joining buildings it makes the object of
the incendiary all the more MYSTERIOUS,
unless it was intended to burn through
the roof and destroy the grocery store.
The peculiar circumstances connected
with the fire affords a field for investiga-
tion.
The result had the fire cotton 4 good
Roadway might have been a fearful holo-
caust. The third floor is occupied by Mr..
Chas. Brickman and family and several
dodgers, eight persons in all Had the
fire gotten inside the building the stair
way leading to the third floor would have
been the first thing reached and would
have cut Off all means of escape for the
occupants of the floor, except by jumping
from the third story on Congress street.
The occupants would probably have been
smOthered in their rooms by the smoke
before they could have become aware of
their danger.