The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-08-17
BURNED
Warehouse of United Sash &
Door Factory
DESTROYED LAST NIGHT
Loss Estimated to Be About
Forty Thousand Dollars
BOOK ACCOUNTS ARE LOST
Nothing Known to Account
For Origin of Fire.
BOOK ACCOUNTS ARE LOST

The main wareroom Of the United Sash
and Door company on the Rock Island
tracks south Of Douglas avenue was
burned at l o'clock this morning. The
loss is about $4,000 The building was
two stories high, S0x15O feet and packed
full Of doors, oil, paint, hair, white lead
and sashes.
Nobody knows how the fire started.
There was no fire in the building, no
smoking is allowed, no matches are kept
in any part Of It, nor was there any
thing to cause spontaneous combustion.
The blaze was first seen in the second
story on the southt side above the car
run where the Rock Island tracks are
built in to allow the unloading of cars
under the shed. Two colored men gave
the first alarm, then Mr.. Clark, who is
employed in the factory, turned in sec
ond, and in a few minutes Mr.. Mum,
who is the manager, was on the ground.
The character Of the material and the
strong wind caused the fire to spread so
rapidly that in less than ten minutes it
WAS impossible to get into the building
and get at the safe where the most valu-
able papers are kept. The fire depart
ment was there before the blaze began
TO show above the roof, but when the
water plug was tapped, there was not
pressure enough to do any good for some
reason, before connection could be made
near the Douglas main, the fire was
flashing among the stacks of pine doors
and the oil barrels were bursting. The
engine was soon on the ground and a
stream was constantly played on the
safe to protect the papers and two were
played on another wareroom just south.
The heat was so intense that telephone
poles a hundred yards away caught and
burned down.
There were probably 1900 plain and
fancy doors, ten cars of paints and white
lead, and forty barrels of oil, sashes, etc.
a carload of doors and carload of oil
was put into the building yesterday.
Nearly all the oil was in barrels or large
kegs, and there was apparently no pos
sible room for a fire to start except from
the spark of an engine or being set on
fire by a tramp. No engine had been
near the place for some time and the
weight Of supposition is that the building
was set on freely some one.
The flames ran up in a great stack,
a height of fifty feet and the blaze shown
till it looked light enough to read as
far north as First street, three blocks
away. The heat was intense, so fierce
that it burned ones face two hundred
feet to the siuth. The fire lasted for an
hour and a half.
Mr.. A S. Parks, the proprietor, is in
Chicago, having gone there a few days
ago from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he
has been for several weeks selecting and
ordering new stuff. Mr. Mann. the man
ager, nor any of the bookkeepers knew
the amount Of insurance, but It Is known
that a greater part of the loss is covered. !
The account books shipping orders and
much of the records OF recent sales,
orders and estimates. were burned, these
not being kept in the safe except over
Sunday.
Mr.. Mum says that orders were COM
tng in rapidly and Notwithstanding the
steady work of thirty-four men. they
were behind with orders and that while
thtis viii add. some to the delay there
are large shipments of material well on
the way here now. Another warehouse
will be secured today and work will go
on as usual.