The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-12-11
THE coast LINE FIRE
THE PAINT SHOP TO Be REBUILT ON
LARGER SCALE
Now Stock OF Paints Ordered and
} Work VIII be Resumed In q Few
Days-The Loss VIII Not Exceed
Se5 ,OO0-The Origin of the Fire
Unknown.
Unknown.

The account given in yesterdays
Messenger or the burning of the paint
department of the Atlantic Coast Line
shops was so near a statement Of the
facts, though the news was only OBJ
tined as we were going to press that
there is little to be added about the dis
aster.
The fire department left hose at the
scene of the fire and played on the
smouldering remnants until yesterday
morning at 10 O'Clock. The flames
made such quick work of the paint shop
and its infiammable contents that the
roof was falling in by the time the de-
partment reached the scene , but the
firemen did some good work in saving
the finishing department which Is a
valuable brick building about thirty
feet away from the one destroyed.
As stated yesterday the paint shop,
a brick building 20 by 120 feet in dimen-
sions, was burned, together with its
contents, including a passenger coach,
a combination car n a mail car,
winch ndQ DCCH TCpdlICu TIL "SIS pC-
ing painted. The three cars were val
ued at $1,000. In the same building
We're also a valuable stock of paints,
varnishes, oils, painting outfits, tools,
brushes, etc. In the uphoistering shop
on the second story there was a costly
stock of material including seats,
backs, cushions, plush cloths, uphol-
STEERING machines, etc. Among the
property destroyed was a quantity of
sash and blinds for four cars that
We're being reprinted; also material for
two new vestibule coaches, and twenty
partitions for use in separating the
races in passenger coaches. There was
also many articles Of value that it
would hardly be possible to inventory.
The adjacent frame house, in which
was a thirty horsepower team engine
and outfit, which was the only other
building destroyed, was valued with its
contents, at $1,000 to 1900.
The heat of the flames broke the
glass windows Of the finishing depart
ment and it's wood work next to the
building or fire was charred. In the
finishing department were several val
liable coaches, new n old. valued at
many thousands Of dollars. They had
Just been painted. and the heat 50
scorched two of them hat they will
have to be reprinted.
-Four passenger coaches and several
box cars on the yards just outside the
paint shop were Scorched, but the dam
age in this particular is trifing. In the
yards eighty cars were standing on the
rtracks, but the employees of the rail-
road who went to the fire as soon as it
was discovered, fired up several loco
motives and soon renewed them to
places of safety. Among the cars on
the yard were eight new Coast Line
despatch cars which had just been
painted and six new ones that Were
ready for the paint.
The inventory of property destroyed
had not been completed by the railroad
people yesterday, but they stated that
The Messengers estimate that the loss
would not exceed s25, 900 was near the
correct statement.
About twenty of the men employed in
the shops lost their painting kits and
tools, the sets being valued all the way
| from SIS to $3.50 each.
There is no theory as to h origin of
the fire. There was a rumor yesterday
that it was caused rom the explosion
of gasoline; that the Waterman put a
lantern inside a room where gasoline
was stored and all at one the flames
burst out with a. explosion. This may
have originated from the fact that
that when the Waterman, MI. George
w. Reed, and Mr.. j. T.. McCumber, the
round house fireman, discovered a
flame in the paintshop, they opened the
door to investigate and the draught at
once sent h fameS in a whirl.
Steps will be taken to rebuild the
paint shop right away. and it is quite
likely that they, will be built on a much
larger scale. In the meantime. the
painters. some thirty-five or forty in
number. will be out of employment only
a few days, as a new stock of material
was ordered by telegraph yesterday.
1t is expected here so the painters cam
go to work on Tuesday