The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-07-24
B. F. EhIers & Co., Lose Thei
Goods Thursday Morning.
sMOULDERING FOR A LONG TIME.
Alarm Turned In by an Advertiser
Boy - stock Insured for $4,000
No Blaze but Plenty of Smoke-Band
Boy Falls Through the Roof, Etc.

At about 4:45 yesterday morning the
be at Ehler's dry goods store on Fort
street and in the center of the business
section Of the city.
The alarm was turned in at 35 a. m.
just left the Advertiser" office with
a bunch of papers. He was inserting
/ of these under the makai door of
Ehler's store when he detected smoke
coming out. He ran to No. engine
house and turned in the alarm.
The fire department was on the scene
soon later The two front doors were
broke in and Immediately great vol
umes OF smoke came pouring out
Streams of water were set to work but
the firemen could advance only few
feet inside the doOrways on account of
the suffocating smoke, this fact render
ing it impossible to do anything else
than throw the water about blindly
However, when the fire was a little
under control, men were able to get
further in and then the fire department
got in some good work.
The iron shutters on the windows
and the large back door were securely
locked from the inside and the fire
which seemed to be confined to the ma,
uka back corner could not be reached
effectively.
Flames were seen to dart occasion
ally from under the roof over this COR
ner which seemed to be the seat of the
fire and, after the inside of the store
had been completely flooded with wa
ter a hole was made in the roof and
with the assistance of two volunteers,
the firemen succeeded in getting a
stream of water into play.
From this incident begins the quench-
ing of the fire. The streams from be
low. in company with the one from
above, were too much for the flames.
AS the water was being played in
from the hole in the roof and while the
firemen, Charles Crane and Louis Ar
maud of the Hawaiian band were stand
ing on the boards constituting the
ceiling of the store, one of the number
broke and Arnaud fell to the floor be-
low. For over minute there was no
answer to the calls from the men above
and G.. J. BoiSse. a preSSman en-
ployed at this office, pulling open the
iron shutters on the mauka side, which
although appearing tightly closed were
only lightly so, he broke open the
window.
By this time Arnaud answered and
he soon bobbed up serenely out of the
smoke, water and ashes with his hat
and right shoe gone, his right trousers
leg torn and with himself soaked to
the skin.
At about Z o'clock the flames were
extinguished and nothing but a smouI-
dering mass of dry goods remained to
tell the story. Throughout the whole
incident there was a remarkable lack
of flames, the dense volumes of smoke
being almost the only proof that q
cOnf1agratiOn was in progress.
The following fire jury was appoint
ed and at about 8 o'clock began its
work of investigation: L. c. Ables, E.
F. Bishop, J. A Gilman, w. F. Allen
and Henry Davis
With them at the investigation were
Theodore Hoffman. superintendent of
the Hawaiian Electric Company, and
Messrs. George GTau and c. Bosse, rep
resenting Hackfeld & Co, Agents for
the Transatlantic and North German
Insurance Companies of Hamburg.
Mr. Hoffman with Joe Gilman fol-
lowed the electric light wire from the
top of the makai front door to the ma
uka back corner of the store where the
fire is supposed to have originated.
Up to this place the wires were in per-
feet condition with the insulation in
tact, but at the spot where the fire was
hottest, the insulation had been burned
away.
An examination of the corner spoken
of above showed that the ceiling and
parts near it had been much more bad
ly burned: that there was still visible
a trap door which had not been used
since Mr.. W. I. Warriner had gone up
to examine the wires about a fortnight
ago, and that the appearance of the
whole interior would lead almost any
one to suppose that the fire had gradu-
ally spread along the ceiling. that
sparks had dropped upon the cOmbus-
tibIe material below and that this had
been the cause of so general turnout.
A fire inquest was held in the Mar