The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1903-01-29

seven O'Clock when the power house of
the Kenosha Gas & Electric company,
at the corner of Main and Old Main
streets, was Quilted by fire, entailing
loss of ten thousand dollars, and COM
pletely shutting off the source of
electric light for the city and the indi-
vidual customers of the company. The
loss is entirely covered by an insurance
Of eighteen thousand dollars held in
different agencies in Kenosha.
By stroke of good fortune the Var
yam heating plant, which was housed
in the power house building, escaped
almost unscathed, and it rose Phoenix
like from the ashes of the plant, two
hours after the fremen had blown the
whistle declaring that the fire was ex-
tinguished. Many people had feared
that the heating piant would be so
crippled that it could not furnish heat,
but Messrs Kimball and Bowen, of the
company, laid aside their coats and
putting on rubber boots went into the
ruins of the building and starting the
FIRE IN the boilers had the pipes filled
with warm water before they had beer
allowed to get cold. The people of the
city should certainly appreciate this
work of Mr.. Bowen and Mr.. Kimba1l,
as it undoubtedly saved great deal of
suffering among the patrons of the
company.
The frc c4used the widest excite
ment in that part of the city, as it was
feared that the flames would spread to
the surrounding buildings. It was ten
minutes TO seven O'Clock this morning
when day engineer John Anderson
reached his post of duty, and while
walking through the generator room
OF the company, he noticed small
blaze in the northwest corner of the
room just over the boiler room. He
rushed from the building to give the
alarm, but before he could return the
flames had spread under the floor to
the east side of the building, which
soon became mass of flames. The
fact that the floor of the room was
soaked with oil and the further fact
that the building is constructed almost
entirely of wood made it an easy prey
for the flames, and when the fire de-
partnent reached the building d few
minutes later the entire interior of the
building was smoking and flames were
leaping up from ali sides.
AS soon as possible the fremen were
put to work, while number of others
were sent to the boiler room to shut off
the steam and drag out the fires to
prevent any possibility Of an explosion
of the big boilers of the plant. From
the onset it was evident that the big
plant was doomed, but five streams of
water were put on the flames and the
firemen worked like heroes to get into
the smoke-filled rooms.
But the flames spread rapidly and in
a comparatively short time the splen-
did machinery, which had cost thous-
ands of dollars, was completely ruined.
The generators were soon stripped Of
their winnings by the flames and the
switch board with its connections was
! among the first fuel Of the flames.
After two hours of hard labor the
fremen managed to extinguish the
flames and an effort was made to put
the plant in some sort of order and dis
cover the extent of the loss.
There was at once a demand from
all parts of the city that the heating
plant be put into condition and to this
end the workn1en began to prop up the
falling roof of the building and to put
the fires back under the boilers. The
!, ca TING plant was damaged to the ex-
tent of about 5000 by the burning Of
the wrappings of the pipes and pumps,
but this was soon replaced with new
wrappings and at eleven O'Clock the
hot water tanks were filled with water
and it was being turned into the mains
again.
No effort was made to restore the
other portions of the plant and they will
have to be left alone until they are
Thoroughly dried out when test will
be made to determine the exact loss
from the fire.
In repairing the pipes of the heating
plant an effort was made to discover
the cause of the fire and it is thought
possible that the fire resulted from a
small leak in one of the furnaces near
the end of the boilers. This made it
possible for the flames to reach the oil
soaked floor, over which the flames
spread to the other portions Of the
building.
Mr.. F. w. Bowen, the general mama
.ro, of the plant, in speaking of the
So ad the following to say: "There
go 80 s,ee, no damage to boilers, engines,
-. - so 7densers or steam runs and
Ia 60 area test amount of damage is done
= $50 ..see tbyee GENERATORS, the three al
e genera tors and the switch
boar5I An of tf1eAe generators will
,sre7.o be re-wound AID it is possible
-Iat sotas of them will prove worthless
when removed from the ruins. The
oss on the bhi1dingis considerable and
he whole was insured for $4,000.
consider Atty per cent loss about the
light figure, bit counting IN every
e - ~ G10 600 ~