San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-04-01
a Blu FIR.
A. GRONA'S MATTRESS FACTORY
BURNED TO THE GROUND.
Caught About 1890 Last Night And All
Efforts Of The Firemen To Save
1t iroved Un vailiug.

At about 1920 o'clock last night al
alarm of fire. from box 236, called the
fire department out to the corner OF
South Olive and East Commerce
streets where A. Grona's large two
story mattress factory was on fire.
| The, Dreiss Hill department, being
nearest, was the first to arrive, fol
lowed Immediately by Chief Collins
and No. . engine and hose reel but all
were unable to save the building as
it had already gained too great a
Roadway, and being filled with hay.
shucks, shavings and such other ac-
cessories to. mattress making, burned
liket finder. as. i. ,..
AS soon as the chief discovered that
it was impossible to save the build
ing he turned the attention of the
firemen to the surrounding houses,
two of which, z. H. Wolfe's handsome
tWO-stOry residence in the rear, and
Mr.. GrOna's twO-story residence I'M
der course of construction, on the
same lot. about 80 feet away, had al
ready began to smoke furiously from
the heat.
The Dreiss Hill company began
work on the Wolfe residence and
company No. 2 on Mr.. GrOna's resi-
dence and by hard work succeeded in
saving them, but not until the side of
Mr.. Grona's house next to the fire was
l.. 70. n
pairs in the future.
In the meantime volunteer workmen
were engaged in saving all possible
from the. burning factory and sue
ceeded in rescuing a pair of scales,
schuck stripper,the telephone, the
two horses in the stable adjoining
the rear of the building, the wagon
and thirteen mattresses, but the wag-
on was badly scorched and the mat
treSses smoked and damaged by wa
ter so as to be almost useless.
Thefire departments attention was
also called to the piles of lumber COW
ering the yard. which were for use
in the new residence. These, together
with II bales of cotton. also piled in
the yard, took fire and required hard
work to eXtinguish them. and this was
not done until the lumber was burn
ed all over the outside as was the cot
ton. thus rendering the lumber practi-,
cally useless. but the cotton. after the
damaged stuff is removed from the
outside of the bales. will be all right
for use.
The hay and shavings were still
burning where the factory stood all
this morning.
The building and contents were in
sured for 81 $50 and was valued at.
$4,000. Beside the hay and shavings
in the building there was also about
two bales of loose cotton and a num-
Der of bolts of bed ticking, as well as
all of the understanding machinery.
During the time the building was on
fire the residents in the neighbOrhood
had to stand and watch the roofs of
their houses to prevent the large
pieces of shavings and sparks from
setting them on fire as they fell.
The alarm was turned in by young
Mr.. Larkin. who was first to discover
the fire, which is thought to have
been caused by combustion, as no one
had been in the building after
o'clock in the evening, when the EN-
ployes quit work.
This is the second time Mr.. GrOna
has been burned out within the past
two years. the other time being about
eighteen months ago, when his fac
tory was situated on the west side
of town. He will rebuild as soon as
possible and resume operations.