The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1899-03-08
TOTAL LOSS.
Mechanical Hall Is 2 Complete
Wreck From Fire.


Blaze Discovered Early Saturday
morning Nothing could be done to
Save it and 1t was completely Distroy
ed-yarioEs theories as to the origin
[ oftbe fire-Loss Is fIfty thousand with
Twenty eight thousand Insurance
| Vast number of papers destroyed
/ List Of companies carry ing the iBsur-
ance-Plans for the future.
The University suffered a very
heavy loss on Friday night in the
total destruction of Mechanical Hall
one of the best buildings OF the en-
tire collection of those ON the hill
The loss will reach fifty thousand
dollars in money and that in the
way of papers and memoranda
cannot be calculated. The insurance
is twenty eight thousand dollars.
The alarm was given about one
o'clock this morning. When the
firemen arrived on the scene the
building was beyond control and
they had to stand and watch it burn
down. The lack of fire plugs is
largely responsible for the total loss
of the structure Had there been
proper apparatus the fire could have
been largely controlled.
There were fire plugs provided
sometime ago but for lack of money
they have never been placed in posi-
ton. Money has been set aside for
this purpose several times but every
time that the authorities went after
the money it was found to have been
used for some other purpose.
The origin of the fire is not known.
The Waterman at the Wooden MIL
states that there was an explosion
before the breaking out of the blaze
and when he looked ont having been
attracted by the report the entire cen
trail part of the building was on fire.
How this could have taken place is
a very debatable question.
Rufus West who has charge of the
building was there until after 10
o'clock and was running the electric
light plant for the evangelistic SER
vices. When he left he turned all the
lights down low and all the fires
were out save small lighters under
the several boilers.
In the central part of the build
ing there was no fire that is known
of except the small gas jets and
they as stated before had been turn
ed down very low. The electric
light plant could not have been the
start of the fire as it was in the low
er end of the building and this was
the last to catch fire aud burn.
The most probable theory for the
origin of the blaze is to be found in
that on an increased gas pressure
which set the wood work on fire over
the gas jets. This was OF Georgia
pine and of course burned with great
rapidity.
The people were hard to arouse
and il seemed a long time before
they began to get on the ground.
When they reached there, had there
been any means Of fighting the fire
they could have saved much of the
valuable contents of the bulldin;,
and have prevented it's burning
down entirely
The fire company when it reachel
the scene found that the hos
was not long enough to be very
effective and the scarcity of plugs in
that part of town also prevente
their doing very much. The fire
was then beyond control and they
could do nothing but stand AMI
watch it burn This took some
time and the many spectators saw
a beautiful sight.
The loss in papers and engineering
magazines is a. very heavy one or
Prof. Aldrich and Prof. Jones. The
loss to the forEler is very heavy and
some of the magazines burned were
almost priceless on account of the
impossibility replacing them. The
records of the department were de
stroyed and these cannot be replaced
All the work that has been done
since the Hall was built was record.
ed and these records were priceless
to the students.
The loss in text books was also
quite heavy. The work will be con
tinued as far as the theoretical part
of it is concerned and the rest will OF
course have to be discontinued All
the classes in the department will
meet regularly on Monday.
The plans for rebuilding have not
been made as yet but the building
will be replaced by a much better
one in a few years. 1t may not go
in the same place and it will hardly
be of the same kind as the one that
has just burned but the replacement
will take some time.
The insurance amounted to $685.
900 with $4,000 on the building and
$50, 900 ON the contents. The COM
panies represented having $1400
each were as follows: Royal of Liv-
erpool Reading of Pennsylvania,
Virginia State of Richmond, Pea,
body, Franklin, Standard and Ger
man, of Wheeling, Continental of
New York, Pennsylvania, Fire and
Caledonia, of Philadelphia. Those
having $4,000 each were: Home Of
New York, Fire Association of Phil
adelphia, Scottish Union and Ma
tional, Philadelphia Underwriters
apd Naw Yorly TIpIarur;forc