San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-12-07
TWO FIRES LAST NIGHT.
THE TOTAL LOSS WILL REACH
$4,000.
A Mattress Blaze-South Side of
Military Plaza Almost
Destroyed.

The firemen were called out
about z 80 O'Clock last night to eX.
tinguish a burning mattress fire in
the stable in the rear of Mr.. s.
Wolfson's residence on Avenue G.
No damage to any extent was done.
The men had scarcely returned
to their stations when the box on
Military plaza was sprung and
engine companies No. l and No. 2
and the chemical and hook and
ladder companies responded.
By the time they arrived at the
box, the fire was plainly visible,
being located in the rear OF the
stores on the south side of Mill
tary plaza, occupied by A. Heusin-
ger and Hofheinz hardware, farm
implement and carriage stores, I.
Gurinski, dry goods, A. Cohen &
Co. and /. Efron & Co., cotton
dealers, and Isidore Wolf, saloon.
The flames, which presumably
originated in some waste cotton in
the rear of one of the stores, had
gained considerable Roadway
among the light iron clad and
wooden buildings in the rear yard
of these stores, and at first the
steamer that attached to the fire
plug at the southwest corner of
Doloross street and Military plaza,
Il nj IyA 60 fxurn az vsae, ~
very effective. Steamer No. put
on two streams from the hydrant
at the corner of Nueva and South
Flores streets and attacked the fire
from the rear. This was doing good
| execution and enabled the other
| firemen and citizen volunteers to
rescue some buggies and farm i'm
plements from the warehouse in
the rear. The old fire plug, however,
could not stand the engine pres
sure, and tore off, drenching the
stoker and extinguishing the fire
under the boiler. This engine was
thus disabled for some moments,
or Until another fire could be
kindled under the boiler and then
a small stream was taken from the,
shallow ditch near by and used on
the fire.
The chemical engine and hook
and ladder trucks were useless, but
another long line Of hose was run
from the north side OF Military
plaza and put into the side build
ings on South Flores street, and
put good stream right into the
fire.
| A general alarm called out the
reserves and No. 4 engine put on
two streams from the southeast
corner of Doloross street and
the plaza, while No. 3 attached
two streams from Trevino street.
Then the fire was speedily con-
trolled, but not before the Hof-
heinz store and the stores of Cohen
& Co. and Gurinski were complete
ly burned out, and Heusinger's
place badly damaged.
| A good deal of cotton in bales
and samples were saved for Efron
& Co., while the saloon stock of
Wolf was also moved out into the
plaza and guarded by the police.
During the fire two firemen fell
off a roof OF one of the one-story
warehouses, when the fire burst
| through on them. A soldier with
an axe was seen working like a
| fireman on the roof Of one Of the
buildings.
Mr.. Hugo aofheinz lost all Of his
clothing, books and papers and all
his bicycle race trophies and six
| bicycles. He had his sleeping
apartment in the rear Of the hard,
ware store.
Issy Strauss, bookkeeper for
Cohen q Co., lost typewriter
machine and two overcoats. A
lot of powder was reported to be
stored in the HofheiDz store, but
If it was, it did not explode. An old
can with six pounds Of powder and
several cartridges did explode and
caused the large crowd to scatter
hurriedly.
During the fire a sick man was
removed from one of the small
houses in the rear of the store and
also an old Mexican lady. Both
were carried to the police mar
shaPs room in the city hall and
made comfortable.
Mr.. Wolf, the saloon man, was |
not very greatly damaged by fire,
but lost quite heavily from thefts |
of liquors in bottles, from the !!
crowd Of boodlums that gathered.
The fire drew thousands of citi-
zens of all classes and the female
sex was quite as well represented
as the males. The police had a
hard time keeping the crowd back