The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-19
A POWER HOUSE BURNED.
Belt Line Property Consumed By a
Supposed InCeldiary Blaze.

Power House, Machinery, Carshed
and Seventeen Cars Go Up in the
F1ames-The Property Too Far Out
For the Work of the Fire Depart
ment to Be Efective-The Property
Now That of the Electric Railway
Company-The Loss Estimated at
$4,000, Thought to Be Fully Cow
cred By Insurance.
The power house, car shed, Office and
work shop Of the old Belt Line railway,
on St. Thomas and Habersham streets,
and the machinery and cars contained
there, were burned last night. The fire
made clean sweep, and the buildings
and machinery are total loss. The dam
age is estimated at over $50, 900. The fire
is believed to be of incendiary origin.
The fire begun in the rear Of the car
sheds and was first seen about 9:45
O'Clock An alarm was turned in from
box AZ, at Bull and Henry, streets few
minutes later.
The location is in the extreme southern
part of the city, and the tiremen had
long run over unpaved streets.
When they arrived all the buildings
were a mass of flames and all the tiremen
could do was to prevent the fire from
spreading TO neighboring houses.
Only one engine was used, the water
pressure from the mains being sufficient
without extra pressure except in the case
of one line of hose which was over LOCO
feet in length.
THE PROPERTY CONSUMED
The buildings were of wood and burned
rapidly. The property was owned by the
Electric Railway Company, which re-
Gently acquired the Savannah Street
Railway. The buildings burned were
the car shed, 60xl00 feet, the old Office, d
two room frame building, the workshop,
a small building in the rear of
the Office and the power
house, consisting of the engine and boiler
room The value of the buildings is esti-
mated at about $4,000.
All the machinery belonging to the Bell
line power plant, with the exception of
one generator, was still in the
power house. The machinery consisted
of the engineers, ther boilers, one genera
tor, the shafting and the accessorie of
the plant, all of which is a total loss
The value of the machinery destroyed
is estimated at about $4,000.
BIG LOSS ON CARS.
A number of cars were burned
thought fn' about Ga' II. Of these several i
were new open cars which had been in
use only a few months. They were
equipped with the Westinghouse motors,
and cost the company about $4,000 each.
Others were motor cars which
had belonged to the Belt Line,
and were worth about $1,000 each.
The others were trail cars, worth about
$3.50 each. The total loss on cars will
amount to about $4,000.
The car shed on st. Thomas street was
used for storing cars which were not in
for all the cars in the
Electric railways car shed on Gwinnett
street. The cars burned were principally
summer cars, which were not in use at
the time.
THE LOSS COVERED BY INSURANCE.
President Collins was attending a meet
ing of the Brush Electric Light Company
when the fire broke out, and did not
know of the fire until the destruction
was complete. He went at once to the
scene when informed of the fire. AT mid
night he informed the MORNING NEWS
that after making as careful
an estimate as possible under
the circumstances he placed the
loss at $4,000, about equally divided be-
tween cars and machinery. President
Collins said he believed the company was
fully covered by insurance, principally
placed in the agencies of W. H. Daniel
The fire, he said, would not in any way
interfere with the operation of the COM
pany's lines, and the full number of cars
will be running on all lines as usual this
morning. New cars will be bought, he
said, to replace the old ones. President
Collins has one consolation. He will
not have to take out badges at $50 each
for the cars that were burned, as re-
quired by the city's tax ordinance.
INoENDIARIsM SUSPECTED.
The conhagration made an immense
blaze which could be seen from all sec
tions of the city and large crowd gath
eredat sthe fire. There were rumors of
incendiarism, and Andrew Collins, the
colored Waterman who occupied the old
Office with his family, was arrested on
suspicion. President Collins said last
night that he believed the fire to be incen-
diary, but did not know of anything that
would connect the Waterman with the
crime. 1t was merely thought best to
hold him as a matter of precaution
Further investigation as to the cause of
the fire will be made to-day.