The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-20
LOSS $15,12O | BY SIX FIRES Two South Court Street
 Stores Burned. CONSUMED DRY GOODS Stegall & Bro. and GerSOn &
 Sons Insured. They owned Buildings Which They Occupied Near Court Square
 TrestIe Work at Railway
 Station Destroyed.
CONSUMED DRY GOODS

Fire which was discovered at g
 o'clock last night in the second floor
 of the two-story brick building at 15
 lions store of W. 5. StegaiI and Brother, completely destroyed the in-
 terior of the building with its stock and spread to adjacent property entail ing loss estimated at $13.000, which is covered by insurance.
 This fire was the sixth one of yes- terday that engaged the attention of the Montgomery fire department. Du- ring the day property valued at ap- proximately S15,120 was destroyed. A day of danger passed for she men whose buSiness it is to fight flames and no injury was recorded.
 m The fire in the Stegall store was well under headway before an alarm was l sent to the department by telephone mense volume of deep rolling black smoke was pouring in dense cloud through the upper windows of the
 building; It was not long. however, before the power behind the throue- huge ieaping fames-began to assert
 themselves through the roof of the building. Immediately the sky was lit with the lurid glare reflected brilliant umphantly over <the doomed building. Persons who had not been attracted to the scene by the fire bell and the changing of gongs of all the fire appa-
 ratus of the department and who saw the glare of fire in the busin ess dis trict gathered on the scene and the crowd became so dense the patrolmen were forced to draw fire lines for Q
 hundred yards about the roaring fur mace,
 Crowd was Alarmed. The three streams of water tbat the firemen played through the windows
 into the furious fire within seemed ap-
 parently without effect and the pro prtetors of neighborlng houses began
 to get their books ard accounts to-
 Rether preparatory to moving. The crowd was of the one opinion that the whole side of the block was doomed to destruction. The water which tho
 daring firemen shot right at the root of the flames soon began to show in telling effect but as quick as one por- tion died down another part broke
 loose with renewed vigor..
 Eating its way through the roof and
 stairs rooms of A. Gerson and Sons dry goods and notions store. the Are
 seemed to gain. strength and Chief
 sbeT aeo, sta1dng on the dripping
 hid from his men below. directed their efforts into the Gerson store. The
 damage to this building was due n
 of water that poured through on the stock of goods on the ground floor
 The stock of the Boston Store, to the
 north of the Stegall store, also suffered severe Qamage rom a like cause. Chief Browder directed his men up a stairway between the two buildings and the men with the hose, standing firm in the face of the intense heat and back the flames. An additional force in the rear of the burning building fought with equal vigor against the spread of the fire which was reaching stronghold in the long stables in the rear of the burning buildings. At the outbreak of the fire. the chemical engine was used to throw a stream of chemicals on the fire, but this was soon abandoned as the fire became too large for it to do much good.
 Within an hour the firemen had re- duced the roaring furnace to a smoul- dering mass of embers and the danger of a spread was over.
 As the crowd was dispersing an alarm reached the firemen that fire had Varnedoe. Briel and Moncrief around the corner at 6 Dexter Avenue. MT. VarnedOe going into the store to see that everything was in safety saw a jet of flame coming from the fiue on the wall in the rear. He immediately gave the alarm and the f1remen hur- riedly responded. They extinguished the blaze which had started from burn ing soot blown down the flue into the store. The damage was trivial. Losses and Insurance.
 The store house owned and occupied by A. Gerson and Sons was valued ap- proximately at $7,vJO and the stock was valued at $7,500.
 The stock in the store of w. J. Ste gall and Bro. was of an estimated value of $7,000 and the building was practically the same as the Gerson building.
 Both merchants owned the buildings they occupied and the buildings and stocks of goods were insured. The Boston Store. a two story brick structure was not materially damaged although the stock of drygoods was damaged by smoke and water. This store is conducted by Kohn and Meller.
 None of the merchants could ascribe any cause for the fire.
 The firemen were commended gem eraIy for controlling confiagration