Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-02-26
HEAVY Loss BY FIRE
First Avenue Property Suffers
$500 Damage Last
Night.
NEGUs BUILDING Is Quilted
Stocks of Rock Island Broom
Company and Aster & Co.
Are Destroyed.

The losses are: w. o Ne
gus. on 2-story brick building. which
was completely Quilted, So. 500; Rock
Island Broom company, whose stock
and machinery were totally destroyed,
$4,000, and George w. Aster & Co.,
whose stock is total loss, $4,000. |
There is insurance of S., 900.
For two hours the business blocks
in the neighborhood were in unmistak-
able danger, and that the flames did
not spread over larger area was due
10 the heroic efforts of the fremen,
who were handicapped at the outset
by 15-minute delay caused, Chief
plug on East Seventeenth street be-
tween First and Second avenues,
Charles M. Witherell, super
of the water works, declares
the hydrant was not frozen. Chief
Hastings says if water could have
been gotten Immediately the Negus
building would have been spared half
the damage it suffered.
The fire was bcrning for probably
half hour before it was discovered
Telephone alarms were sent in stimuli
taneously at $50 by Policeman Dem
mis- Mccarthy and Martin McNealy.
the latter's wife smelling smoke on
her return with her husband. after
call, to their home on West Seven
teenth street. just east of the burning
building. Officer Mccarthy sent in
his call from Thomas drug store and
Mr.. McNealy from his house, where
no has telephone. bsing construc-
ton foreman for the Central Union
Telephone company.
Furious Fire.
The Il ,mes were rapidly consuming
the interior Of the building when the
fire department reached the scene, a
large crowd having also gathered.
The interval that passed before water
was turned on was painfully long and
it seemed as if the whole block would
be enveloped in flames before any,
thing could be done to stay the pro-
gress of the flames, which were shoot
ing high and throwing sparks over
into Second avenue.
The fire originated in the broom
factory. which occupied the west half
of the Negus building. Aster & Co,
being occupants of the east portion.
1t was another of those mysterious
blazes that prove puzzlers to the
fremen. How it started no one seems
able to say.
Water Pressure Weak.
Six streams were playing on the
burning building half hour after the
alarm was sounded. Some of them
were decidedly weak. and appeared to
be accomplishing little good. But it
was generalship more than water,
probably, that averted what gave
every promise of serious. conf agra
ton, Chief Hastings, with the GOODNESS
that always characterizes his battles
against the flames, realizing that all but
the walls of the Negus building was
doomed, setting about to save ad Join
ing property, and in this he succeeded
On the west of the burning
structure was the Rock Island
Buggy works, and on the east the
and Office of Channon,
Perry & Co., and double frame
tenated by the families of Timothy
Kennedy and Martin Medically, and
the Rock Island house barn. All of
these were saved any damage beyond
what was suffered from smoke and
water, the families in the frame
moving their furniture into
the street.
Broom Company Books Gone
The Broom company not only lost
ali it's machinery and stock, but also
it's books. being left with no record of
the standing of creditors. Aster &
Co. were more fortunate in this re-
spect, getting out of the Office their
accounts before the flames had reached
that part of the storeroom.
Aside from tho delay caused by the
trouble at the Seventeenth street
hydrant, the forces at the waterworks
were slow in cutting off the reservoir
and turning on the com ined pres
sure of the plant into the city mains.
Before doing this they sounded TIE
general alarm, which consumed time
that was valuable in such an 'emer-
gency, and which performance should
be avoided by a direct alarm system,
which would, while communicating
the number of the box to the firemen
aud waterworks engineer, at the
same time strike the number of the
box on the engine house bells. It
might be possible also to automatic
ally blow the whistle at the same
time.
The Insurance,
The building was insured in the
sum of 81. 900 through Reidy Bros.
agency in the Hartford Insurance
company. The Hamburg Bremen
company. through William L. Luz
6olph's sgency, carried 81 900 policy
on the Rock Island Broom company's
p ant, while w. c. Maueker's agency
carried 81. 600 in the Hanover of New
York, 81 900 in the Continental of
New York. 81 500 in the Fire Associa-
ton of Philadelphia and 81 500 in the
Commercial Union of London, and
Hayes & Cleaveland's agency had