The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1904-12-20
A $4,000 FIRE
Building and Contents at
Alliance Burned
Saturday Night.
DETAILS OF LOSSES

Special to the Morning News.
Alliance, o., Dec. 1S.-One of the
most serious fires that have occurred
in Alliance in some years started in the
Saturday evening. People in the vi
cinity noticed the blaze and turned in
the alarm at once but the building was
at the mercy of the elements for
about Is minutes. the time required for
the department to make the run of
nearly two miles to the spot. The
origin of the fire was unknown but it
was seen to have started in the center
of the building. Mt. Union has no fire
protection outside of the central de-
partment and nothing was done until
the department arrived. The flames
spread so rapidly that it was impossi-
BILE to get any of the goods out of the
building and everything is total loss
aggregating probably 100000.
When the department arrived two
streams were turned on the building
but the pressure was so weak that the
water was scarcely thrown to the sec
ond story and at times fell off entire
ly. The heat became so intense that
buildings a hundred feet away and
over were badly scorched and while
the firemen fought valiantly in the
face of the intense fire it was soon
seen that the building was doomed to
destruction and the streams were play
q In, hui Il 4
one not over 10 feet away was saved,
with the assistance of the wind which
was in the other direction.
The building was owned by Lindsay
Stroup, the councilman of the Fourth
ward and was valued at $4,000 with
insurance for about half the value.
The grocery of ]. H. Stamp and son
occupied the corner room of the lower
floor and as their winter stock of goods
had just been placed in the rooms
their loss will be about $4,000 with
$500 insurance Barber's meat mar
ket occupied the middle business room
and the fine new fixtures, including
large modern refrigerator and coun-
tiers with several pairs of computing
scales were destroyed besides the large
stock of meat The loss of this part
was not known but will run over
$1,000. The back room down stairs
was occupied by the janitor, David
Snyder and his wife as a living room.
His uninsured furnishings valued at
$500 were total loss. Upstairs Dr.
Judd had room and his valuable col
lection Of books gathered largely in
Germany and abroad was lost. Clyde
Hamlin lost his uninsured furnishings
valued at $3.50. Mr.. and Mrs. Barth
had finely furnished suite of rooms
and the furnishings were totally de-
stroyed
The building was the finest in Mt.
Union and was destroyed some years
ago in similar manner and the fine
structure Just now burned was built at
that time. 1t is probable that the
building will not now be erected again
until spring. Great suffering is forced
upon the occupants of the block from
the fact that the building and contents
were inadequaately insured and the
occupants
OF the upstairs are especially hard to /
bear.
For some time Councilman ,Stroun
and the residents of Mt. Union have
been fighting for sub fire station in
Mt. Union and only last Monday ove-
ming council accepted report favor
Ing the extension and the city solicit |
tor was instructed to draw up an or
dinance providing for a $4,000 bond
Issue for the Improvement. 1t is prob |
able that the legislation will now Re
brought to an issue and also that some
provision will be made for increasing
the water pressure in the district.
The fire not only was a great loss 10
the owners of the property and to the
occupants. of the building but consid-
cradle inconvenience was caused q
great number of people from the fact
that the fire damaged the electric livbt
wires and the Stark Electric wires I'M
such a way that it was necessary to
smut of the current on both systems.