St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-07-19
ANOTHER BAD FIRE.
The Factory of The Ely Hoe and Fork
Company burned.

GOUpHHy BuTHeu'
Fire was discovered in the Ely Hoe and
Fork factory about twenty minutes to
II Wednesday night. The alarm was
soon rung, followed by alarms from
other boxes which of course caused some
confusion in locating the fire. Before the
hose companies arrived the lactory's own
hose was played on the fire with little
effect, as the flames had gained consider
able Roadway before being discovered
The Summervie company were the first
to reach the factory and the Railroad
street company soon followed. Then a
general alarm was sounded which
brought out the entire department.
The fire started in the rolling mill.
There are a numher of forges and fires in
this room and vicinity during work hours
and it is surmsed that in some way the
building caught fire from some fire that
had not been extinguished when the
men left the shop. If this is the case, the
fire must have been smouldering all the
evening.
The factory is composed of wooden
buildings and naturally well soaked with
machine oil. One room was devoted
almost entirely to the storage of the
wooden handles and unfinished stock
and the flames made rapid headway
through the buildings. 1t was an
extremely hot fire to fight, but our fire
men stayed until after o'clock when
the fire was under control. The Sum-
merville and Railroad street companies
remained all night and the fire smouldered
all day Yesterday and had to be guarded
by the department.
Before the fire was under control the
rolling mill, the cylinder room and the
forge room had been badly Quilted and
some of the unfinished stock, consisting
of wooden handles were burned. The
fire was stopped in the forge room.
Firebrands.
The Ely Hoe & Fork Company is a
stock company with capital of $40, 900.
At the present time they were employing
% hands, and in the busy season this
force was doubled. The question of
rebuilding will be decided at directors
meeting which will be held soon. THE
CALEDoNIAN expresses the wish OF the
entire community that the directors will
decide to rebuild, as st. Johnsbury cannot
afford to lose such an industry as this.
Mrs. Adams and Mr.. and Mrs. G. w.
Young furnished hot coffee and refresh
ments to the fremen, for which kind acts
the firemen wish to publicly express their
thanks.
The only accident occurred to Henry
Cormer, who fell and had a nail thrust
through his hand. The injury though
painful is not considered serious.
The delay in ringing the alarm was
due to the fact that the first arrivals did
not know how to ring an alarm. This
is easily and quickly done by breaking
the glass to get the key. Then unlock
the box and pull the lever down to the
pin, being sure to let go of the leyer after
this is done.
The Insurance.
The total insurance on the burned
property was $19, 800. Crawford Ran
ney carried $500 in he following COM
panies: New York Underwriters, $1100;
4Etna of Hartford, $4,000; Springfield,
81 900; British American of Toronto,
81 100; Commercial Union of London,
$1,10O Insurance Company of North
America, 81 900; American of New York,
$500.
Geo. p. Moore carried $40, 500 on the
property divided as follows; National,
$4,000; Phoenix of BROOKLYN, $1,500;
Connecticut, $3.50; Granite State,
$3.50; Caledonian of Scotland, $500;
Lancashire OF England, $4,000.