The sun., 1897-06-22
BLAZE IN THE NAVY YARD.
ORDNANCE BUILDING NO. 1S DE-
S1RoYED COMPLETELY,

Marines from the barracks ana Jaekies rreSn
the warahips made n Good Fight. but
Couidn't stop the Firc-Nater scarce-Hn-
chino Guns Dcstroyed-DamaEe $500, 900.
One Of the ordnance buildings In tho Brooklyn
Navy Yard, a threc.story brick structure $50
feet long and 90 foet wide. was destroyed by
fro last night. The building was known as No.
13, and was used principally rs storehouse and
repair shop. 1t contained valuable machinery,
small arms, shell castings, steol guns, paints, ana
rigging valued at $25O.000.
Tho building was valued at $4,000 1t oc-
cupied the navy yard block bounded by Perry
street, Second street, Chauncey avenue, and
Third street, within 200 fsot Of the water front.
At 9:I5 o'clock marine doing guard duty In
the yard smoke issuing from window on
the second floor of tho building. He quickly
turned in an alarm which was communicated
to tho ships lying in Wdllabout basin.
Thoy were the battleships Indiana and
Maine. tho cruiser Detroit, the receiving
ship Vermont and tho monitors Terror and
Puritan. The crows OF oil the ships wero called
to quarters, and details were made to fight the
fire. In tho meantime an alarm had been sent
out to the city fire department.. and third
| alarm brought the freboats David A. Boody and
| Seth Low.
The Marine Fire Corps In the navy yard were
the first to arrive with their old-fashioncd hose
| carriages. Then came fire cutters from the In
diana with 200 sailors. The sailors werc armed
| with axes. fro hooks, battering rams. and whito
wooden buckets. They had just turned in
aboard ship for the night after half
an hours fire drill. When they re-
| sponded to the call for real fire duty
they tumbed from their boats, hatlesp and shoe
| less. Three minutes after the call TO quarters
| was sounded two hundred jackies had crossed
the wallabout Bay. and were running In double
file up through the navy yard, carrying their
| buckets, axes, and hooks.
When the big doors of tho burning building
had been battered down the sailors wcro sent
into the building to save the machinery and
other things in there. While the Indiana's men
| were at work dragging tons of steel from,
the building with ropes and rapidly rEged
| derricks. the men from tho other ships werc
landing. laying pipe lines and attacking the ire
Squads Of sailors with buckets Of water were
sent upon, the roofs Of the neighboring build
When the Brooklyn iiremen got mp with nine
engines Chief Dale found q scarcity of water
bo brought into service. The pipe, from
the noInr Other nEnes ad.r sd ,rDn
ho
pumping the water from the bay. By the time
the dreboats Sot to work the entire building was
!
making noise resembling the firing OF mus
| kotry.
In and about the Navy, Yard great crowds had
gathered. When they heard the noise OF the
roof falling they believed that II was the explo
sion of loaded cartridges in the burning building
and they scattered IN hurry. Some one started
a story to the effect that several persons hae
been injured. and ambulance calls were sent out
An ambulance from the City Hospital on tn,
way to the yard collided with fue
The driver, however. and the sur
geon, Dr. Benton, luckily escaped injur.
and continued in the broken down am
bulsnce to the fire. When they got there the.
found that only one man had been injured. III
was h. F. Shay. from the Vermont His arIl
and hand had been laceratcd by falling slat
, from the roof, and he had received bruises abou
the back, head. and shoulder.
Commodore Buncc. coInmandant Of the yard
with Capt. Sperry and other officers who wor
In the yard at the time. watched the sailorme
work. and admired the way they did IL. Whe
the flames had been eNtinguished the jackie
were marched back 10 tho dock and returned I
their ships.
!, Tho cause OF the fire not learned las
night but II was believed to have been spor
taneous combustion.
, The most valuable contents of the buldin
| consisted OF IA number OF Hotchkiss, Gardner
and Nordenfeldt rapdtre guns stored on tn
| first floor.