The age-herald., 1899-10-10
FIRE DOES DAMAGE
 IN HUNTSVILLE
About $75,000 Worth of Prop
 erty Destroyed.
THE ORIGIN IS UNKNOWN
For Time it Looked as if the Flames Would Spread to Adjoining Blocks, and the Mayor
 Called for Aid

Huntsville, October 9.-QSpecial.)-A mass of jagged walls and smouledring ruins is all that remains today of one of the bes. business blocks in the busiest part of the city. The fire began in W. J. Bennett & Co.'s livery stable at 8 o'clock Sunday night and burned until midnight, causing loss of not less than s75000 in property. The losses conservatlvely submitted this morning by the losers will reach in the neisLl5orhood of $76,000
 No one can account for the manner in which the fire originated. Bennett X Co. had just received large shipment of feed by rail and it was piled in their loft. This where the flames were first seen. The stable was an immense structure, nearly 200 feet long, and was kept b1dghuy lighted at all hours The employees were all in the office and did not see the fire until the aiarm had been given by outsiders. The blaze was first seen in the loft, and it spread with such rapldity that every man in the building had ito get out as quickly possible Fifty mules and horses were securely hitched in their stalls, and only ten of the animals were saved.
 From Bennett's stable the flames were communicated to the adjoining structure on the right occupied by Tom Masons liv- cry stable. From this structure the flames passed on to Skinner &, Sons carriage fac- tory and fine residence in the rear, con- pletely destroying both of them.
 The First Methodist church, adjoining the --.inner residence, was abaze several times and all of the portable articles were taken out. The fine pipe organ was taken apart and badly injured by heat and flames.
 On the left of the Bennett stable the flames spread to James Seats fish stand, small wooden structure. Here the flames
 seemed to abate and the firemen thought
 they had it under control However in a lew moments, the ccrnices of the Baker building blazed up and the whole interior burst into flames. The infiammable con- tents caused the building to fall as easy prey to the flames and all of the walls had fallen within an hour MT. J. D. Hum- phreys drug store on Washington street. adjoining the Baker building, was next burned and then followed the destruction of
 the store houses occupied by A. Weiss. dry goods and L. s. Demson, dry goods, both
 stores having edifices above
 The burned block is bounded by Wash
 ington, Greene, Randolph and Clinton
 streets and the only remaining buildings left intact by the fire are the First Metho-
 dist church. the Struve building and w. D. Lynskey's residence and confectionery store. The fire Threatened several times to leap ~Ser Washington street to the city hall and in that event the loss would have ap- preached the half million mark.
 All of the occupants of the burning build ings saved more or less of their property except Bennett & Co. This firm lost forty horses and mules, 900 worth of feed, and about forty wagons, bugges and other vehicles. Tom Mason saved all of the horses from his stable but lost his fine pack of fox hounds and thousand dollars worth of farm implements. J. w. Skinner x Son saved most of the carriages in their factory but lost a large amount of materials. R. E. and w. E. Pettus saved about half of their groceries as did Lexson & Kelly. A. H. Johnson was very fortunate in getting out most of the furniture in his establish ment.
 When Mayor Alfred Moore saw that the fire threatened to spread to adjoining blocks he telegraphed the fire chiefs at Nashville Chattanooga and Decatur asking
 them to send engines to assist the local de-
 partment. The fire was under control by 10:3O o'clock and the mayor stopped the Chattanooga engine at Stevenson. The
 Nashville engine en route on a special train,
 was stopped at Murfreesboro.
 At least ten thousand people witnessed the fire Services were being conducted in all of the churches when the alarm was given, but all turned out when the danger of the fire was ascertained. This was by
 far the largest fire ever in Huntsville and
 the only that compares with it in any way
 occurred in the year 1S40.