The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1904-09-10
EVERYTHING BURNED.
House. Furniture and Chittim Bark
A Midnight Fire.

a
An eloquent appeal for water
works that will furnish an adequate
Ere protection for Corvallis, Vas
fire that destroyed the home and
belongings of Mrs. Ed Cline, We'd
nesday night. In the house was
quantity of chittim bark represent
ing the summers work of Mrs.
Cline and her daughter in the chit
tim woods in the vicinity Of Sum-.
NIT, and from where the family
had returned last Sunday. There
was also the entire complement of
household belongings which with
the home, constituted the wealth of
the Clines. At the time of the Gre
the family was camped at the Lilly
yard, where efforts to
increase the winters store by hop
picking were in progress A few
hours of blaze Wednesday night
swept away everything, including
chittim bark, clothing and house
hold effects, not an article having
been removed from the burning
building. An insurance of 5000
was on the house, but it will fall
far short of covering the actual loss.
Lack Of water at the fire made
the efforts to save the building far
cical. 1t is true that the flames
had great headway, before the
alarm was turned in, and it is pcs
sib1e that with an adequate water
pressure, the building might not
have been saved. But it is never
theless true that the fremen. on ac-
count of the lack of water. were
helpless to render assistance and
that the incident disclosed how
utterly unprotected from fire is the
residence portion of the town.
Many of the best citizens in town
aver that the extreme height to
which water could be thrown was
II feet. Some others admit that
the distance may have been few
feet higher, but all agree that ID or
IS feet was the outside limit. At
ter it was established that the
building and its contents were
doomed, the fremen set about to
extinguish the flames on a burning
telephone pole. Forty good ,citi-'
zens declare that the stream failed
to reach half way to the top of the
% or "a foot pole. Small boys saw
the ludicrous side of the incident,
and shou ed to the fremen to "spit
on the fire." Unable to reach the
flames on the upper portion of the
pole, fireman climbed half way
up it, and from that vantage point
was finally able to throw the stream
to the top and eztinguish the blaze.
During this operation the jeers of
bystanders, directed at the wat
er conditions were as amusing as
they were pathetic. The stream
used by the fremen, came from a
four inch main, which many people
allege must have tean we'll filed
with mud, from the quantity of
fifth and slime that was forced out
through the hose. Ali this time,
the big engine at the wafer works
plant was pumping vigorously into
the mains direct, but only with
the result related above. The hy-
drant is the same that was used
when w. A. Wells house, then oc.
cupied by Mrs. Captain Geary,
burned to the ground on a certain
4th of July, few years ago An
eye witness declares that atthe time,
because Of lack of water, the fire
men in order 10 get stream on the
fire, had to Glib to the roof of the
kitchen. and from there let the wat
er run from the nozzle on to the
flames below. This bystander also
declares that with ampl- water at
that time, the Wells building could
have been saved
In behalf of the water works, it
is urgedth small streams were
running on lawns about town at the
time of Wednesday nights fire;
and that this seriously, interfered
with the pressure. The alarm was
turned in about midnight c. A.
Hyland, Glen Hodes, Officer Os-
burn and Stanley Ha1nmel were the
first to reach the engine house to
sound the alarm. Accounts all
agree that tie building was ablaze
in all parts when discovered, and
that it burned like finder. Horace
Locke, W. G.. Emery and another
man were the first at the scene,
and they declare that flames were
issuing from the windows, and that
the roof was everywhere ablaze
when they got there
The origin of the fire is un-
known. Members of the family
had not been in the house since