The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-19
$4,000 is
LOSS BY FIRE
Street Car Company's Barn
Burned Last Night.
CAUSE Is UNKNOWN
Eight Summer and FiveWinter
Cars Were Destroyed.

The frame car barn of the Wichita
railroad and light company caught fire
x1ysteriously shortly after midnight last
night and before the fire We extinguish-
ed thirteen cars were badly burned or
badly damaged. No one knew how the
fire started. but it apparently began near
the east of the barn. 1t gained great
headway and the firemen found the barn
half consumed when they reached the
scene
How the fire started no one about the
barn was able to tell. one of the wipers
in the new brick barn across the street
from the power house heard some one
should "FiTei" He rushed to the door
and saw the fire and Immediately turned
in a nalarm from the box at the barn
door. Te department responded promptly
but the fire had gained such Roadway
that whe nthey reached the scene II was
almost impossible to get the horses and
hose past the fire. Three streams were
furned onto the barn, or that part of it
entirely consumed and this was soon
Hnder control and the firemen then turn
ed thei rattention TO the burning section.
When they began work the east end Of
the barn was so badly burned that they
could only save very little so they turner
their attention TO the west end to prevent
all of the damage they could.
Superintendent Morris was on the scene
soon after the alarm was turned in and
after the fire was under control, made a
list Of the cars and the amount OF dam
age. There We're eight summer cars on
she south track, each fully equipped and
nearly ready TO start for the summer S
business All Of these were burned or
damaged to such an extent that they can
not be used this year. These cars are
worth about three thousand dollars each.
There were five summer cars, but the
motors had been taken off and the dam
age to there viii not be so very heavy.
Every car IN the barn was damaged be-
yond use without a great deal of repair
ing. Mr.. Morrison stated that the total
damage would amount to something over
thirty thousand dollars.
The barn was nothing more than a
shell. but it was in good repair and had
been lately painted. 1t was of such con-
struction that fire spread rapidly and the
woodwork o fthe cars was extra god
timber for the fire. The blaze had been
burning for a considerable time before il
was discovered or the loss would not have
amounted To such large sum.
The fire pressure was good and the
men had hose enough TO extinguish the
fire quickly when they reached the barn,
The fire was in a every part Of the barn
when they arrived but the east end OF
the Darn was almost ehIIely cOhSuIueu
The insurance on cars and barn viii
cover nearly the entire loss.
None Of the men working about the
barn could assign any reason for the
fire. 1t may have been caused from the
sparks from an engine passing and tht
seems the most plausible story. The fire
was in the east end. There Were NJ
power wires being used in the barn ant
this seems to be the only cause known
so far.
The people of Wichita will have to rid'
in the closed cars most of the summer
Eight of the ten summer cars We're de
stroyed. The company has seven car:
that can be used for both summer anr
winter they have extra large window:
but Only two cars besides these can %
used until new ones reach this city.