The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-05-13
Piles of Cedar Poles Valued at About
$6G0,O0O Quickly Reduced to a
Mass of Ashes.
WIND WAS BLOWING A GALE
AND CHUNKS OF BURNING WOOD
WE'RE CARRIED LONG DISTANCES.
Engines and Fire Boat from Detroit
Unable to Check the Rolling Mass
of FIames-The Losses.

DETROIT, Mich, May 12.-Fanned by
thirty -mile-an-hour wind, fire, this
afternoon, swept the west bank of Rouge
river in Deray suburb TO the south of
Detroit, for 'three-quarters of a mile and
destroyed more than $4,000 worth of prop
erty. Following are the losses: Salliotte &
Ferguson, lumber mill, $4,000, covered by
insurance; Brownlee & Co. s sawmill, salt
block and part of their stock of lumber.
s45. 900. insurance $4,000; the Western Union
Telegraph Company, loss on cedar poles,
stored in yard which was swept by the
flames, about s6O0,OO0 insurance unknown;
Carkin, Stickney & Cram, loss on dredge,
dock, $4,000, insurance unknown; Maltby
Lumber Company. cedar poles and saw
mills, $4,000. insurance $4,000
The fire originated shortly after l o'clock
in the roof of the Salliotte & Ferguson lum-
ber mill. The mill had not been running
for several months, and the roof was
dry as tinder The building was soon in
ashes, and the fire swept across a dock to
where a dredge of the Carkin, Stickney &
Cram fleet of dredges was tied up. Despite
efforts to save her this craft was burned
to the waters edge. Great embers were
picked up by the wind and dropped on the
roof of Brownlee * Co.'S mill and salt
block and both these buildings were de-
stroyed
Delray has a very small fire department,
and a call for help was sent to the Detroit
department, which responded with three
engines and the fireboat Battle. Even the
great streams from the fireboat were pow
erless TO check the flames, which were roll
ing down the river bank for hundreds of
feet
From the Brownlee property the fire
jumped over into the large yard which the
Western Union Telegraph Company used
as a storage point for their cedar telegraph
poles. The yard is the distributing point
for ten States and more than 100000 poles
were stored there. The fire swept through
the great yard which comprises about eight
acres in less than two hours, but the poles
blazed until far into the night. The
streams from the fireboat Battle were CEN
Jed on this yard. but they had no effect
in staying the flames. The four-inch
streams were turned into steam almost be-
fore they reached the burning piles of
poles.
The plant of the Maltby Lumber Com
pany was the last one on the river bank
and it was soon destroyed, together with a
large stock of cedar poles which was
stored in the companys yard.
When darkness fell the glare from the
burning poles Illuminated the sky for miles
The firemen worked on the fire almost all
night, bat it was only to keep il from
spreading TO other property, for they real
lied that it would simply have to burn itself
out in the Western Union storage yards
While this fire was burning the lumber
yard of G.. y. Raupp a. Co., in Ecorses,
about mile from Delray, was set on fire
by sparks from a passing engine and 5OO-
600 feet of lumber was destroyed. The loss
is about $1,000, covered by insurance.