The San Francisco call., 1897-07-16

vara. The building is of brick and is five
stories and basement. The structure cost
about $l50,000. A fire which took place.
in Yates ollhouse the day after CnleI
Scannells death damaged the oulldlng
and contents to a considerable extent, put
the loss was not as great as tnat Whlcn
yesterdays fire caused, which loss Is
estimated at $50. 000 :,
The American Tobacco Company had
lust moved out OF the building. The
company had for many years occupied
the south half of the premises. Inc va
Gated premises were LEASED a few days ago
to the An erican Biscuit Company. The
managers of the bscuit company had
some articles of equipment in place and
had made some alterations necessary for
the conduct of their line of manufactur-
ing. They were at the scene of the fire
and congtatulating themselves that they
had escaped serious loss.
1t was reported to Charles Neal, who
was Mr.. Fairs secretary, that the fire
started on the third floor and burned with
q flash. The three alarms were turned in
one after the other in quick succession.
The response was prompt, but the fire had
gained immense headway before stream
of water could be thrown. A partition
wall running through the cen Ter OF the
building from Front street to the rear OF
the premises protected the south hall OF
the structure.
The insurance on the contents of the
oilstore does not exceed $4,000, although
the loss is estimated by Mr.. Yates at
$l25, 600 All the insurance was placed by
Davis & Watson OF 221 Sansome street.
The risks were held by twenty COM
panies.
Ludwig Schwabacher, secretary and
manager of the Crown Paper Company,
occupied the top floor and the basement.
At one time the fire got into the basement,
where was stored large quantity OF stock,
but District Engineer Costello and two
tiremen brought in line OF hose and ex-
tinguished the flames.
Adjoining the burning building were
the Atlantic tree warehouse, the United
States bonded warehouse and the DAN
forth warehouse. These structures con-
tanned about 0,000, 900 worth OF brandy
and other liquors, tea, opium, rice, silk,
sugar. etc., and at the outset OF the hre II
was feared that If the flames encroached
upon those warehouses there would be
loss of many millions of dollars. The
firemen seemed to realize the danger and
were alert in guarding against IL. The
shutters in the burning building were
tightly shut, so as to smother the flames
as far as possible, only sufficient number
being open to admit of the streams OF
water pumped by the engines.
=Tne water tower was placed In the mid
die of Front street. and six lines of hose
were connected with il, three from en-
gines situated at Broadway and three
from engines situated on Battery street
Three lines of hose were carried from
Broadway on the roof of the one-storied
warehouse and played through the win
dows of the third story facing the north,
while several streams were turned into
the building from the south and east
sides.
Miss Nellie Mulvey, an employe OF
Yates & Co., was on the second floor when
the fire broke out, and she tainted. She
was rescued and taken down the frees
cape on the Front-street side by John
Griffin and Nick Neary.
The fire came with the suddenness and