Arizona republican., 1903-05-11
SUNDAY MORNING FIRE
Further Details of the Incident in the
 Winters Block. q

The fire in the cellar of the Winters
 block on the cornc- of Adams street
 and First avenue, which was discover
 not fully extinguished till after 3
 o'clock. A careful exan:inat tion of the
 premises could not be lna&c till day
 light and even then there was nothing
 in evidence to explain the mysterious
 origin of the fire. It YVES at first sup
 posed the fire originated in the cellar of
 McClure's pharmacy for the reason
 that the first efforts at fighting it were
 through the entrances to the Mcclure
 cellar and it was well known that there
 was an electric lynamo and other ma
 chinery in the cellar as we'll as various
 drugs and more or less other merChan-
 disc. For want oi a better explana-
 ton it was thought possible that the
 fire had been caused by an electric wire
 connected with a dynamo.
 A visitor to the place, however. can
 readily see that the fire originated in
 the cellar of DePew's bicycle store,
 somewhere in the vicinity of the stair
 way, and that it smouldered for long
 time before being discovered. The De-
 pew cellar is very close there being
 practically no circulation of air. The
 stairway goes down about the center
 of the storeroom and near the wooden
 partition between the two stores nam
 ed. The boards on this partition are nailed on the Depew side of the posts and for a space of several square feet are burned clear through but there is larger area of the partition that is all charred on the Depew side and that is net burned through. while the posts in the burned area are only scorched on the Mcclure side. Also the DeDew stairway and the floor of the storeroom, on the under side, are practically turned to charcoal. MT. Depew had stored in tha cellar it is said a lot Of rubber tires and it was the roasting they received that made the nauseat- ing smell that was almost suffocat ting for blocks away. There is no evidence nf anything in the Depew cellar, how ever, any more inflammable than the wooden steps. So far as the electric wires in the cellar of the drug store are concerned, the nearest ones arc d couple of feet away from the partitlon and while the insulation is burned off them they evidently could not have suffered till after the fire had been in progress some time. After burning the hole through the partition the fire crepC along a wooden swinging shelf in tho Mcclure cellar to q wooden oartitiOn| across the cellar and scorched 1t severely but the fire was under con trol before it had burst into a flame of any proportions. The cellars under the buildings in the block are all separated by these wooden partitions
 Adjoining the pharmacy on Adams street is room in which Mir. and Mrs. Mcclure were sleeping when the fire was discovered. The next room is oc- cupied by E.. A. Spaulding, the real es- tate dealer, and the next one by a fruit store run by F.. A. Nealis.
 MT. Mcclure was awa6ene1 by a telephone message from central saving there was a report that his store was full of smoke. He heard the phone ring three times before he could fully arouse himself. owing no doubt to the stifiing atmosphere. The telephone is on the wall just above where the fire was in the cellar and when he went to answer 1t the floor was so warm it burned his bare feet. He at once an- swered central to call out the depart ment though he had not yet located the fire but the alarm had in the meantime been given. It would have required hut a few minutes more of that stifiing at mosphere to have asphyxiated both MT. and Mrs. Mcclure and they are fortu- nate to have suffered only a financial loss. MT. Mcclure raplied on the .,arti- tion and aroused Mir. Nealis, who suys he was also nearly overcome with the smoke and was so badly 6azed that though he heard the noise i. was some before he was aroused to his danger. Though there were two store rooms between him and the drug store the smoke reached him by way of the | cellars.
 The fire department did excellent | work. In the first place it was about | the hardest sort of a contract it ever | got hold of. The fire was difficult to To- | cate and when found it was impossible | to get close to it till the cellars had | been flooded. A hole was cut in the | floor of the drug store near the back | 1oor and one hose played a stream in here while another was gotten into the ,ellar as quickly as possible through | he cellarway in the First avenue side walk. A third hose was eventually turned on the fire through the Depew 'tore. The fire, however. was kept be- ow the floors in both buildings. except hat it burned so nearly through the Oepew floor that man punched a lole through it walking over it. Though stream was turned loose for a minute II the drug store while the hose was being carried through, but little dam lge was done and none of the big howcases, some of which run clear o the floor, were broken. The smoke however. did burn off the pipes in the oda fountain and creep up into the 'oom in that way to a great extent