The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-21
A BIT OF HISTORY.

Pennsylvania Depot this morning is that
once every seven years the company in
dulges in the luxury of a fire. This is
the third fire since the company started
in business at the ferry and there is a
space of seven years between each. The
first was in 1884, the second in 1891 and
now 1898. The company will have rest
now until 1905, when fire No. will be the
proper thing.
Fire No. l. in 1884, consumed everything,
depot, train she'd ferry buildings, piers,
and as the then Superintendent Robert E.
Petit picturesquely expressed it,:
The hull dam shooting match is gone
to-you know where.
1t broke out at twenty minutes after
eleven O'Clock on the evening OF August
4, 1884. A terrible explosion was heard at
that time, Immediately followed by an
outburst of flames. 1t was gas tank IN
the ferry house which had exploded. Be
fore many minutes elapsed the entire
structure was in a blaze. So fierce and
rapid was the fire that in fifteen minutes
after the explosion took place both south
and north of the depot was one Seething
line of flames. and the ferry house and
office buildings and train shed were envel-
oped in their deadly embrace. For two
hours the fire burned steadily eating its
way up the north side of Exchange place
to the corner of Montgomery and Greene
was spreading to the Adams Express
Companys Depot, and great efforts were
made to save it and its valuable con-
tents of freight. 1t SO happened that at
the time an unusually large collection
of packages of all sorts and sizes and
value had been received for transmission
By this time the ferry houses, horse
car depot and the railroad depot were
destroyed. At two O'Clock on the morn
ing of August the firemen after hard
fight of about three hours had the fire
under control and not many hours after
wards it was completely extinguished
What scene of devastation and ruin was
therei From Adams Express Companys S
wharf on the north to the Stockton"
pier on the south the entire space between
was an area of smoking ruins. The Brook
lyn annex pier was gone, all the bridges,
floats and a large portion of the piles
forming the slips We're devoured by the
relentless fury of the flames. 1t was a
mercy that no lives We're lost.
The rough estimate of the damage so
far as these, with the buildings thereon
included, footed up to nearly half mil
all it's property covered with what were
called floating policies, which were placed
mostly in English companies. Not only
was the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany's business affected by the fire, but
the N Y, West Shore and Buffalo and
the SuSquehanna and Western Railroads,
those of the P. R. R. The Adams Ex
press Company lost a large quantity of
express goods.
A large force of workmen were in
stantly placed at work clearing away the
debris and as soon as possible the work
of reconstruction was beguna The then
superintendent, Robert e. Petit, said the
day after the fire that an engineer on
one of the company's locomotives saw
the fire distinctly at Princeton Junction,
fifty-five miles west of Jersey City, and
he supposed that it was a ire in Eliza
beth. The railroad buildings covered an
been destroyed, so the tremendous glare
in the sky was seen for many miles
around
Fire No. 2, strangely enough, was also
caused by a gas explosion, and this took
place at $40 o'clock on Friday morning,
December 4, 1891, precisely in the same
years before, namely, the ferry house;
Three alarms were quickly sent out and
soon the whole Fire Department was on
the scene. The handsome new office build
been completed apparently was doomed
to destruction. The fire first broke
out in an old two-story frame building.
formerly used as superintendent OIL
flee. The building had been Quilted few
weeks previously to make way for new
exit for incoming passengers: Practical
ly the building was a shell of about
1O0x50. On what was the lower floor only
the supports remained. In demolshing
the building the gas mains mad, 1t ap-
peared. been twisted, and the result was
a leak. From this place then, after
loud explosion in the early hours OF the
morning, proceeded the flames
The old office building burned like
match box, and in a few minutes there
was nothing. to be seen but an advancing
the new waiting room, then in course OF
construction, and the temporary wooden
wall on the east end of the new monster
train she'd The roof of the waiting
room being ceiled with wood was soon
devoured, and the flames flew. on rapid
ly to the wall mentioned, and from it on
towards the west where stood the new
the ground floor of the buildings first
caught fire, which began to eat its way
upstairs. Smoke and flames poured from
the lower windows, and there seemed no
hope for the handsome building. Streams
of water were turned on, but before the
flames could be checked Nos. l, and
in the new brick block were gutted to the
walls. Fortunately the windows connect
ing, or rather separating, the building at
certain points, were closed, or else the
whole entire block was gone. Attention
was then paid to the burning roof of the
train shed. The fire had by this time
burned out about 100 feet of the roof, but
it was quickly checked and extinguished.
The Offices Of Superintendent and the
Engineer Corps We're burned out. AS
for the injury to the new trainshed, that
was comparatively slight, and also the
of the latter was UP and the damage was
simply the burning of the wood work In
all the then Chief Engineer Brooks, now
Superintendent, fixed the loss at $4,000 to
Il Then her comes No. fire, with the result
toll in the columns preceding this.
Az r everything they undertake, the
Pennsylvania Railroad is thorough and
no sooner had the fisfes been extinguished
this morning when down into the depot
ratified train of cars bearing lumber and
materials for temporary structures. 1t is
we'll known that the cOmpany's engineer
had almost completed plans for new
ferry house, and those plans will now be
rapidly pushed to a completion. AT pres
ent the company will put up a temporary
waiting room inside of the trainshed and
then rebuild on the site now in ruins. This
new waiting room, with its restaurant
and other Offices will be substantial
lines as the DID, but harmonizing more
with the general appearance of the main
building and vastly different from the
ramShackle wooden structure which now
is heap OF ruins at the west end of
the mammoth trainShed Engineer Gar
diner is up to his eyes in work, assisted
by the entire corps of engineers, prepar-
ing for the work to be commenced as
quickly as possible, and when the new
building is finished it will be a splendid
building. Then visitors to Jersey City
will see stretching from Hudson street
on the north side of Exchange place to
the river front a handsome facade worthy
of the P. R. R. and jersey City.
To be prepared for the visit of fire No.
A, in 1905, there will be line of salt
water plugs surrounding the building.
and it will be next to impossible for any
fire within the circumference of that cir
Gle Of fire apparatus to assume any large
plugs and the operation of the different
apparatus will be observed, so that
when the fire alarm is sounded every
plug will be manned and streams of