The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-06
Company, OF New York. Mrs. Rhodius esti-
mates the loss on the building at about

Company, OF New York. Mrs. Rhodius esti-
10000.
During the progress of the fre, street.
Indiana avenue was practically at a stand
still. During the early part of the morn
ing the passengers alighted and went TO
swell the enormous crowd which gathered
around the burning building. Some OF the
iremen and policemen who were compelled
to remain at the fire suffered very much
from the cold. The fremen were relieved.
a few at a time after the fire had been
practically gotten under control. and were
allowed to return to their homes to change
their frozen clothing.
H. T. Condo was on a train bound for
Ohio when the fire broke out and he was
notified by telegraph when he reached lip
ton. Ind. When seen last night Mr.. Condo
said: s"It would be utterly impossible TO
give any reliable estimate of the loss. as
and without the books 1t is impossible to say
how much stock was in the building. There
was. in all probability, not more than $40,
600 worth of twine in the basement. and
the remainder of the stock will come inside
of $4,000. We had a large amount OF our
stock stored in an adjoining building, ana,
OF course, that was included in the first
stimate given out. The list of insurance
cannot be given at present, as the policies
are In the safety vault, which cannot De
The fire burned all of last night, with no
show of abatement. Early in the evening
peIled the fi remen to r their efforts.
Capitol avenue and Washington street.
near the intersection of the two streets.
was covered with ice. The neighborhood was
saturated with the smoke. which, with the
ice and cold, made a combination which
very few could withstand. AT no time was
there a crowd around the burning build
ing. People would come, take a look, specu-
late as to the duration of the fire, and then
pass on. TIL firemen tied the hose nozzles
and allowed the streams to play upon the
burning debris. The firemen said, last night,
that the ~resinous Irvine would probably
hllrrl for fwn dnUG h1lf oil danpor of the
fire spreading is past.
Yesterday. morning, about 1 o'clock. the
of $500 by fire and the building was dam
aged about $500. No insurance. The building
is owned by the Sinker-Davis Company.
Recalls the Gil MIL Fire.
With one exception, the fire which de-
stroyed H. T. Condo & Company's imple-
ment warehouse yesterday was the hardest
to combat of any in the history of Indiana
polls. The one exception is the burning of
I. p. Evans & Company's oil mill, which
was located on Pennsylvania street at the
crossing of the Union tracks. The fire oc-
CURED one Sunday afternoon about twelve
years ago, and on account of the large
quantity of oil, which was stored in the
building, running into the cellar and taking
fire, it was necessary to keep the fire de-
partment at the scene for a whole week.
The fire yesterday was similar to the extent
that the cellar was filled with extremely
combuStible material, which smouldered and
caused such a smoke that it was impossible
to enter the building most Of the day.
This fire gave the department some idea
of what the firemen of the South have to
contend with when a cotton warehouse
burns. The forty carloads of binding Irvine,
stored in the cellar. burned about as readily
and almost as tenaciously as cotton. The
slightest spark was all that was necessary
to begin a blaze, and when fire once got
inside of a bundle of Irvine, nothing short
of a complete immersion in water seemed
sufficient to extinguish it. Several bales of
twine, which seemed to have no fire about
were thrown out of the cellar and curious
persons ripped the cover from them, when
in a instant they burst into flames. This
indicated to chief Webster what he had to
combat with thousands of such bales stored
In the building, and he went to work with
a will to flood the cellar, but on account of
the sewer connection, it seemed to be an
endless job--the water seemed to run out
as fast as it was thrown into the building.