The San Francisco call., 1898-04-16
The Branch House on Federal Street Will
 Be Reconstructed.
According to the Owners the Loss Was Almost Wholly
 Covered by Insurance.
THE CAUSE A MYSTERY.
The Loss Has Not as Yet Been Esti- mated, but Will Probably
 Exceed S5OOO

The cooperage establishment of Lach- man & Jacobi, 53-55 Federal street, was partially destroyed by fire early this morning, and the contents of the build ing were also severely injured by the large amount of water which was thrown into the burning structure.
 Two alarms were sounded from fire box 57 about 12:30 o'clock and the de- partment quickly responded. Charles Sproule, the night watchman of the building, stated that he had thoroughly looked over the premises about mid night, and that no signs of a blaze were to be seen at that time. The flames were first noticed coming from the win dows on the top floor, and within few minutes the entire building seemed to be burning to the ground. This was probably due to the fact that immense quantities of wine are stored in the building and the upper floors are of dry material.
 After the first flame was seen the whole structure scr med to become ig nited at the same time, but the fire de- partment, as well as the owners of the establishment, are at loss to account for the cause unless some sparks from the fire lit for the purpose of heating the unused barrels caused the serious blaze
 The building next door. occupied by J. Jaughhan and Carl Assmus. employees in the building, and owned by Joseph Fletcher, was damaged to a consider able extent by water, but it Is thought the amount will be covered by insur-
 ,N1o cd In, the building, and, in consequence of the fire, they will be thrown out of em- ployment for a short time.
 All their tools were in the building at the time and the loss of them will tend to bring up the amount of the damage which was roughly estimated at s5000 According to the reports of the owners of the property the damage will not be very great unless the large amount of wine on the lower floor was damaged. It was thought at first that the entire block would be destroyed by the flames, but prompt action on the part of the fire department soon changed the ideas of those who were first on the scene.
 MT. Jacobi a member of the firm, was on the scene shortly after the blaze was discovered He said: "I have no definite idea as to how the fire start ed. although, of course, there are the usual thousand and one ideas, any one of which seems plausible, but not def1- nite1 enough to base a suggestion on.
 'It is also impossible for me to make an estimate as to the possible damage, as I do not know just how much stock was on hand. We used the lower floor for the storage of wine and there was anywhere from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand gallons of wine stored there Of course, as you may surmise, our stock is shifted in and out. and without looking up the ac- counts 1t is impossible for me to make any dxnite statement regarding our loss. Our loss is partially covered by insurance. but I cannot remember the figures: in fact, until we know how much of the wine is ruined it will be impossible to make the remotest call culation regarding our loss.
 "The delay in starting up anew must also be considered in the loss account. Of course all the stock and finished goods are gone and this will put us to some immediate inconvenience, but we will reopen as soon as possible. A great many of the workmen owned their tools, which harevery expensive, but these they will replace themselves. We will. of course, reopen as soon as pos sible. as our business makes a con- stant demand for the finished barrels or casks"