The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-16
DAMAGED ABOUT SiO,OOO.
soHoEyBERGER & SONS BUILD
 ING ON GEORGE STREET.

Fire starts In Boiler Room and Eats lis
 Way to Roof-spreads Ovsr Entire
 ssrueturs-Ths Smoke Causes Great
 Trouble to 1he Firemsn-FamIiiesA All
 E.osPe from Building.
 A fire yesterday afternoon gutted the entire Schoenberger building, SS-9s George street, and but for the prompt work of Chief Fancher in sending in the second alarm, would have done great deal more damage.
 At 3:SO o'clock Joseph Smith, the en- gineer of the building. discovered that the woodwork around the boiler was on fire and before he could send in the alarm the basement was all on fire.
 When the department arrived smoke was pouring from the building in dense clouds and this made it difficult for the firemen to work, as it was very hard to get anywhere near the blaze. It looked as though the entire block was doomed and Chief Fancher lost very little time in turning in the second alarm.
 The block is occupied on the ground floors by stores, Schoenberger & Sons meat market taking up most of the space. The Hartland family, the Ford family and four Jewish families occupy the flats upstairs and they only had time to escape with few belongings after the fire was discovered.
 Great black clouds of smoke drove the firemen and spectators away from the building and although the fire started in the basemen the upper floors quickly filled with smoke and windows had to be smashed all over the house to let 1t escape.
 It was with difficulty that the streams of water could be got on the fire and 1t was nearly two hours before the base of the fire had been reached and it was then evident that it would spread no farther.
 The fire started in the central part of the basement and it quickly ate it's way up to the roof, the entire center of the building acting as a fiue. From the center it spread all over the building and completely gutted it, except some apartments in a rear addition, and these also were badly burned.
 It was not until after o'clock that the fire was entirely out and an engine was kept playing on the smoking em- bers until late last evening.
 Exactly how the fire started is not known, but the people at the store and the fire officials say that there is little doubt but what it started in some man ner from the engine. probably from overloaded pipes.
 The building was erected in 1895, and cost in the neighborhood of $30,000. It is owned by Mrs. E. Schoenberger and her sons, Leopold Henry and William. It is thought that low estimate of the damage to building and stock is $10, 900 and this is practically covered by insurance The insurance is car- ried by a number of companies, includ- ing MT. North's and Mr. Bretzfelder's.
 The building has frontage of 80 feet on George street and adjoins the Trim ity German Lutheran church.
 MT. Schoenberger stated that he will resume business at his Congress and Howard avenue stores until repairs can be made on the burned building.
 A valuable pet chicken was saved from the flames by Sanitary Inspectors John O'Donnell and PeterI. Conlin, as- sisted by Charles J. Cummings. Screams, like those of woman's, were heard coming from the rear of the burning building and these gentlemen went over the back fence to investigate. There they found Sammy" the seven year-old pet chicken, nearly suffocated. They carried him out to a place of safety and saw that he received proper care.
 A member of the Ford family offered l $500 for the recovery of a picture of John Ford. who was a former member of the New Haven Grays and who died short while ago. After the building had been partially cleared of smoke the picture was found in a rear room and it ! was not damaged.