El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-01-26
MAJOR RAND'S RESIDENCE BURNS
1t was too Far From Water for the
Firemen to do Much.

Only the blacken d, crumbling walls
remains of the home that has sheltered
Major r nd ard his family from all
kinus of weather in Ell Paso for the
past thirty years. Not only the home
is burned. but clothing, furnit ire and
trinkets that h id b coma dear to
the hearts of a family are all gone for
ever-swept away by e seething blaze.
Last evening at $50 tn family were
a. supper aud while engac ed in their
evening meal they heard something
fall, bus tn ought it was Norvel return
irg from his days work. On bearing
the noise a second time Mr.. Slosson, q
son-in law of Major Rand, went into
Norvel's room aud finding smoke there
he opened the door leading into Mrs.
TIL omas' room He was met by a blaze
Of fire that drove him back into the
dining room. One of the daughters
ran to the L. & p. Offices to turn in the
alarm, while the balance of the family
remained at home to fight the flames.
The garden bose was attached to the
hydrant, but the latter was frozen and
no water would run. Then efforts were
m ade to get the furniture out of the
house and by this time the fire depart
ment was on the scene, hose cart No. 2
had laid a line of hose from the plug at
the corner of San Antonio and Tsys
streets -the nearest plug to the fire
The hose cart had 115O feet of
hose, but this amount did not reach
the fire and the hose cat was sent
back after number ones hose. By the
veloped the whole building, as it took
1900 feet of hose to reach the fire.
The firemen in the mean time bad re-
moved the furniture from two bed
rooms and the dining room, but the
two front ped rooms and the psrlor
could not be reached and everything
in those rooms was total loss. Wnen
a stream of water was at last turned on
tie blaze was quickly extinguished
but not uotil everything but the walls
was ruined.
The fire origin ated in Mrs. Thomas
room and was probably caused by q
live coal rolling onto the floor aud that
room was entirely enveloped in
flames before it was discovered. Mrs.
Thomas lost everything and only saw
ed the clothing she had on Every
thing in Norvel Rand's room was
burned and all he has is the clothing
lOr including the piano was burned,
and t. e store room that was filed with
trunks and furniture just north of the
parlor was burned. All that was saved
wss from he two southeast rooms and
the dining room.
Mr. Slosson and his wife had just
moved back from Juare yesterday aod
the furniture he brought over from
The other side WAS partly consumed.
One of the pieces of property saved
last night was secretary belonging to
Major Rand that contained $4,000 worth
of valuable papers and $500 in cash.
This was brought out of the room while
it was burning aud two firemen were
almost overcome by heat and smoke
and Frank Q Iiros' clothing were on
fire when he came out of the build
ing.
Mrs. Rand was sick in bed when the
fire was discovered and she had to be
carried out of the house. She was
taken TO Mr.. McCutcheon's residence |
and was there tenderly cared for by |
friends
The family found shelter last night
at the residences OF their neighbour.
The fremen did the best they could |
under the circum stances, b It they had |
to fight the fire without water until |
hose cart No. arrived and that did |
not turn out on the first alarm, and |
hose cart No. had to return and take |
it to the fire The fire plug was 1850 |
feet from the fire and there is only q |
four inch wat r. ma ne in that part of
town to get the water through. One |
trouble was that the fire alarm was |
not rung long enough and the district |
was not given so that may fremen did |
not get to the Gre in time to be of any
benefit.