The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1901-02-22

and Yale Art Gallery Burned.
At the hour when sleep is heavy up
on one. about :l5 q. m. Wednesday,
all were rudely awakened by the
dread call of the fire whistle, which
has sent the alarm so many times re
Gently. A severely cold night with a
hard wind blowing from the north
west is not u very pleasant time to be
turned out or to tight fire, but fortu-
nately this time home was not to be
emptied.
The three wooden buildings on Main
street. two story and one story, be
longing to j. G. Hart were the ones to
be consumed by fire. The two stores
below were occupied by Harry Van
Vleet as a Racket, the third was empty
Lara Middleton haying only recently
removed his laundry therefrom. The
rooms oyer the Racket were occupied
by Clarence Holden as his photograph
studio. By the time the alarm was in
the whole structure was ablaze and in
an incredibly short space of time the
fire had done its work and everything
was in ruins with nothing whatever
saved. These buildings were set close
in with others on either side. 1t was a
wonder that the flames were controll-
ed, but the heroic efforts of our good
tiremen saved all other buildings.
The wooden stairway on the south
side of the brick bank of B. Il. Noble
caught fire several times but was in
stantly put out.
No one could tell how this fire
originated. The first comers say that
all the lower part was ablaze which in
dicated it must have started on the
first floors somewhere. Mr.. VanVleet
had just put up a new stove and is
confident it could not have started
there, so the whole thing is one of the
mysteries. A lot of new tinware had
arrived the day before and part of it
placed in the store. Mr.. VanVleet's s
5000 insurance. Mr.. Holden's actual
loss is about 5000, but this certainly
does not represent in full the loss of
all his material, negatives, unfinished
and finished work besides the time lost
in procuring and fitting up other
rooms. He carried only 5000 insur-
ance. Mr.. Hart's loss on buildings is
$500 or 5000 with $500 insurance.
X =
Very few towns2eople knew that
there was fire in the Flax Mill Tues
day morning early, as no alarm was
heard. A fire was being built under
the boiler in the engine room, and as
the fire began to heat, it was noticed
that the boiler commenced to crack
and an investigation revealed the fact
that it contained no water. The fire
was quickly drawn from under, when
the flames shot up and the Flax Mill
seemed for a time in imminent danger.
Quick time was made in getting the
hose at work, but one hydrant was
found to be frozen and the hose was
too short to reach the other. so while
vain attempts were being made to turn
in an alarm at the Power House, buck
cts and pals were brought into use and
the fire controlled with but little dam
age and great danger ayerted.
The loss of the Flax Mill would
mean great deal to our town. At the
time of the fire there was no one in the
Power House which has meyer before
happened and probably never will
again, Mr.. Curvin having gone to his
home for q short time to see his sick
wife.
x*
Yale is getting its full share Of fires
the past year, and four within a
month, but with the exception of the
Rapley house barns, the Bell livery
barns and the last fire the buildings
haye been saved with slight damage,
which goes to demonstrate that we
have a good and efficient hose COM
pany and fire protection, but we are
all hoping that no more alarms will be
t,,r IN, fnr ha ot