The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-25
Destructive Fire at Kansas City,
Kansas, Last
Night.
PACKING PLANT BURNED.
FLAMES DEFY THE EFFORTS OF
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
Il Dozen Streams of Water POwerIess
to Check the Progress of the
Flames, Which Leap from Build
ing to Building Licking Up Every
thing in Their Path.

Kansas City, March 24--At $50
o'clock tonight fire broke out in the
hog building of the Reid Packing COM
pany's plant at Kansas and Railroad
avenues, at Kansas City, Kas, and al
most the entire group of buildings
were completely destroyed, causing a
loss of over million dollars. At 1890
o'clock the following buildings have
been destroyed, and the fire was not
yet under control, owing to the want
of water pressure:
The three story hog building, the
four story storage building. the engine
house and the beef house.
When the fire was discovered q
Waterman telegraphed the Kansa City,
Kas.. fire department and a general
alarm was sounded. The flames spread
over the top floor of the hog building
with incredible rapidity,E the flames
feeding on the meats and oils. Before
the firemen had laid a line of hose the
roof had fallen in. The flames from the
hog building communicated with the
engine house on the south, and soon
wrecked the. boilers and destroyed the
effectiveness of the companyS fire ap-
paratuS.
Courageous Firemen.
A disastrous explosion was narrowly
averted by the firemen who, at the risk
of life and limb, rolled 20 barrels of
gasoline from the building. From the
engine building the fire spread to five
one-Story frame ice houses, each 200
by 125 feet. These were rapidly de-
voured by the flames, and then the
four-Story storage building. which was
right in line, fell a prey to the element
of destruction. There was 100000
worth of meats in the basement of
this building. The first floor was used
as a warehouse; the second floor was
filled with dry salt meats; on the third
floor were big hogSheadS full of meats
ready for shipment, while the fourth
floor was packed with dressed meats.
The fire leaped from room TO room and
roared and cracked until the roof fell
in and the flames shot fifty feet in the
air. AT this point the Kansas City,
Mo-, fire department was appealed to
for assistance and six hose companies
and two engines responded. The water
tower from the Armour company, also
assisted.
With Irresistible Force.
At 7:2O o'clock the west wall of the
hog building fell with crash. The
ing the storage house with the beef
house and the bridge burned fiercely.
The firemen turned their whole atten-
ton to saving the beef house and
dozen streams were turned on the
burning bridge. Notwithstanding the
strenuous efforts of the fire depart
ment, section after section of the
bridge was partially, destroyed and
finally fell to the ground, where the
rlr Of cd
Finally the beef house caught fire and
the firemen were powerless to stay
the greedy flames as they ate their
way into the building through the
bridge. When it was seen thai the en-
tire plant was in imminent danger of
complete destruction, more aid was
called for and the entire force en- the
ground was turned to saving the beef
warehouse. In short time The build
ing and contents were saved eEd then
the firemen concentrated their efforts
on the storage building, which was
burning fiercely. A heavy wind ccm-
ing up caused the flames 20 burn with
renewed fury and within twenty min
utes the roof fell in and soon there
after the south and west walls top
pied over. But a little time elapsed
before the building was complete
wreck. The three-story smoke house
is separated from the storage building
by thirty feet, a small One-story build
ing standing between them. This was
soon blazing. The wind veered to the
east before much damage was ac-
complished here, however, and the
building was saved.
At 1915 the fire was brought under
control, but as a heavy wind was
blowing the f1remen were kept on duty
to avoid any possibility of the fire
spreading.
The entire plant is valued at 100000,
while the estimate placed on the stock
ranges from 100000 to s1,OOO,OOO The
loss on the buildings destroyed will
reach probably 100000 to 100000 and
that on the meats, oil, lard and other
products consumed will bring the
total to over a million and a quarter
dollars.