Evening star., 1895-07-24
BURNEDOUTOF HOME
Continued from First Page.)

and 1t was considerably after o'clock be-
fore 1t could be said that the fire was un-
der control, and that danger of its spread.
ing farther was past.
Good Work by Policemen.
Among the first to reach the scene Of the
fire were Policemen Kilmartin, Fathers
and Barry, the latter of whom did such
excellent service at the time Of tho Owen
House fire. There was nothing they could
DO in the Y. NJ. c. A. building, SO they
broke into Bryan's store and turned their
energies to keeping the fire fl ON getting in
there. They took up their stand by the
windows openi lg toward the Y. M. G.. A.
building, and by tearing away the counters
and furniture in the neighborhood and
flooding that section of the store with
water managed to keep the flames from
getting much of a start on the main floor
In the meantime, however. the flames were
eating their way into the upper floors.
Before Settright re de back to turn in the
second alarm he and Cooper made thor
ough tour through the building. although
asleep in the doomed structure. There was
no one to be found, for Mr.. Pugh, the sec
retary of the Y. M. C. A., and his wife.
who have had apartments in the building,
are in western Pennsylvania, and are ex-
pected to return this evening.
Fighting the Flames.
Within a few minutes Of the time the
first alarm was turned in Chief Paris ar
rived on the scene. and took charge of the
work of fighting the flames. Maj. Moore.
the chief of police, was among the early
arrivals, but Lieut.. Amiss and the re-
serves from the first p, ecinct were there
almost as soon as the engines, ana dld
yeomen's service as firemen before the
crowds began TO arrive and they were
called upon to preserve order. AS soon as
he reached the fire Chief Paris came to
the conclusion that there was no earthly
chance of saving the Y. M. c. A. building,
and he ordered mis- men to devote the con-
siderable portion of their efforts to saving
the Bryan building. In that building the
flames did their worst in the upper stories.
the stairway being BADLY burned out and
the floors and the roof practically destroy
ed. Practically all Of the stock Of grocer
les on the second floor was ruined, either
by fire or by water. The flames spread
over the roof Of the Bryan building to that
of the next building, occupied by James b.
Lambie as a hardware store. They did
little damage, but from the nature of the
stuff the water will occasion quite
heavy loss. The fire burned so fiercely In
the interior of the Bryan building that had
1t not been for the double walls separating
them the Lambie building might have gone
as well. Fortunately. they were put up at
different times, snd two separate walls
were erected instead of a common party
wall being used. In the opinion of those
early on the scene this fact was all that
saved the fire from spreading into the
Lambie building and on into Magruder's
grocery store.
Y. NJ. G. A. Building Total Wreck.
The fire was practically extinguished
some time before 8 o'clock, although
streams of water were kept on the building
for some time after that hour. The fire
was smoldering in the trunks, blankets and
articles of that sort which were stored
in the upper part of the Bryan building
and might have started out again at any
time. The fire was kept from spreading in
the rear beyond the Y. NJ. c. A. building.
The northern portion of that structure was
used as the gymnasium and was a one
story addition with it's floor some feet
below the level Of the ground. All the
fine equipments in this part of the insu-
tuition We're completely destroyed and some
of the members suffered considerable loss
in the matter of private property stored
in the gymnasium lockers.
The main part of the Y. NJ. G. A. building
on the ground floor was used for sitting
rooms and reading rooms. In the second
story were recitation and study rooms. In
one of the rooms were about twenty type
writers, rented from one OF the local
agencies. and nothing is left Of these but
few chunks of melted metal. One of
the rooms in the front of the building was
used by the '96 committee of the Young
Peoples Society of Christian Endeavor.
and at first it was thought that all their
property in the way of papers, records and
badges were lost. Mr.. NJ. NJ Shand, the
thorough search as soon as it was possible
to climb the ladder into a second-story
window, and found that among the very
few things not completely burnt was a
big oak desk, in the drawers of which were
the important papers belonging to the COM
nlittee. These were not damaged to any
considerable extent. The big Japanese UNI
brella awarded the local union at the re-
cent convention in Boston was water
soaked, but to the great delight of the
committee was by no means ruined.
The exact origin of the fire will be a
difficult matter to determine. According
to the policeman who first broke into the
building the flames were then near the
air shaft side Of Mr.. Pugh's office, though
it was but few minutes before the entire
building was enveioped. There was d tee-
phone in the Office as we'll as a messenger
call and an electric light. The three wires
entered by the air shaft. and the opinion
among the officials of the association this
morning was that the fire must have orig
mated in the crossing of these wires, one
of which was noticed several days ago to
be loose and to have fallen from it's proper
place.
The loss from the fire will amount to a
very large sum. The Y. M. C. A. owned its
building, which was by means a new
one, although in good repair, and it was
fairly we'll insured. 1t was probably worth
in the neighborhood of s2O,OO0. The Nation
al Union Fire Insurance Company carried
S., 600 en- the Young Men Christian Asso-
citation building; the Corcoran, $1,000 on
the furniture, and the Phoenix OF New
York $500 on the gymnasium. The Lon
don and Lancashire Company was said
this morning to have carried something on
the building. but just how much it is not
known.
The building occupied by Mr.. c. C. Bryan
as a grocery store is owned by Mr.. c. c.
Glover, and was worth in the neishborhhol
Of $4,000. The loss to the building was