Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-08-12
SOME PARTICULARS
OF the Big Fire at Parkersburg
Friday Morning,

Sentinel:
The fire is supposed to have beer
caused by lightning, which entered tn,
building by a telephone or electric
light wire The flames originated In
Tie rear of the third soor of the burn
ed building and were communicates
to infiammable' material near by.
THE LOSERS.
The Smith Hardware Co. was the
greatest sufferer by the fire and thell
loss will pass the 100000 mark, w. H
VOLTS building was damaged to the
extent of $1,000. as is Jas. Wetherels
building occupied by Berry's restaur-
ant. Panlus Reps & Co.'S stock of
goods, valued at $4,000, was damaged
by water and his loss is estimated at
1000 Mrs. Annie Newhart's house
hold goods in the Wolff building were
badly damaged by fire and water and
the loss is estimated at $500. Mans
field & Schmidt's cafe on Julianna
street was damaged by water to the
extent of 5000.
Mr.. w. H. Smith, the president of
the company who are the heaviest
losers by the conflagaration, was pres
ent at the fire with the other members
of the company and saw the fine bust
ness edifice one of the most substan-
tial in the state, go up in flames. They
did all they could to save the building
and were unremittlng workers all
through the early hours. Words of
sympathy were extended 60 them from
all sides.
Mr.. w. H. Smith was seen by the
Sentinel this morning, and in response
to inquiries he stated that the estimat-
ed loss on the stock and building was
placed at $4,000, and the insurance on
the stock and building would cover
probably half that amount. The books
and papers are in the vault and until
they are recovered he was unable to
state for a certainty the exact amount
of the insurance They carried a very
heavy stock at the present time and
everything is total loss with the ex-
ception of small lot of shelf hardware
which is badly damaged by fire.
When asked if the company would
rebuild Mr. Smith replied that he could
not say at present whether they would
do so. They had built up a large and
prosperous business but it would al
most take life time to get things in
as good shape as they were before the
fire. The matter of rebuilding will be
decided later.
All day long a large crowd of sight
seers have stood by the scene of the di-
saster, watching the firemen put out
the last remaining sparks of the fire
Early this morning w. H. Smith
placed force of men at work trying
to get order out of chaos.
The firms safe, containing all the
company books and papers, is buried
in the rear of the building under a
mass of debris AS rapidly as possible
this is being removed and it is hoped
that by tonight Che safe may be located
and opened.
Albert Waite, who was employed at
the store, did an act this morning that
deserves mention. He is assistant
bookkeeper for the concern and knew
that there were valuable books and
papers that were not in the safe. AS
soon as he arrived on the scene he had
Lieut.. King break the glass in the
front door OF the store, and, rushing
to the office, he placed all the yalu-
ables in the safe and saw to it that il
was locked. The store was filled with
smoke at the time and although his
friends urged him not to enter, he did
it and returned to the open air unin-
jured.