Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-02-27
Blaze From Hot Axle
Starts Disastrous S.
100000 Fire.
FIGHTERS POWERLESS
Company Ready to Clear Away
Ruins and Rebuild on
Larger Scale.

New Orleans, La, Feb. 27.-The a.
linois Central railroad states as soon
as the ruins cool forces will be put to
work to clear away the debris and the
StuyVesant docks and elevators de-
stroYed by fire last night will be
promptly rebuilt, on more elaborate
and substantial scale than before.
Division of LOSSES.
Conservative estimates figure the
immediate loss as $5,OOO.OOO divided
asv follows:
Two elevators, warehouses. sheds.
s2.5OO.OO
Twenty three thousand bales cotton.
$4,000.
Seven hundred thousand bushels of
grain. $3.50. 900.
Fifteen thousand barrels of sugar.
$500 900
Cottonseed cake. 1915
Lumber. $16.625.
Cement. $5G25O.
Meal. 10000
Sundries, $l500O0.
Five hundred freight carr, $375,OOO.
Ships. $4,000
City fire department. $4,000
Private property otherwise dam
aged. $21G 600
The railroad company carried its
insurance. The contents of the var
ious elevators and sheds were insured
In local and foreign agencies.
No Lives Lost.
Apparently no lives were lost in the
fire. though there were many narrow
escapes among those engaged In
fighting the flames
In addition to the railroad property
the fire destroyed the Crescent Ice
company plant. and many small stores
and large number of small resi-
denCes.
The fire will temporarily throw out
of work a large number of employees.
Twelve squares burned.
The Stuyvesant docks extend from
Louisiana avenue almost to Napoleon
avenue. a distance of u squares. The
wharves between these two points
were covered with miles of trackage
and steel and iron sheds ran the whole
distance.
The two grain elevators were of the
most modern construction. the upper
one having a capacity of a million
bushels. Thousands OF bales of cot
ton. several hundred thousand pack
ages of sugar. great quantities OF cot
ton-seed oil and oil cake lumber and
every conceivable variety of freight
filled the warehouses and sheds
Practically all the export business
handled by the Illinois Central was
put aboard ships at these docks.
The docks and improvements have
leen under construction for 10 years
past elaborate extensions and i'm
mense investments having been made
after the constitutional convention OF
1895 made II possible for the road 10
invest permanently ar this point
Flames Quickly beyond Control
The fire was discovered shortly af-
ter ! O'Clock II was said to have
resulted from journal that had not
been sufficiently oiled The whole
plant was equipped with gigantic wat
er tanks and fire eXtinguishing ap-
paratus. but the blaze. small at the
beginning almost instantaneOusly got
beyond control. communicating
through the convCyors 10 the lower
elevator and some Of the sheds
The response OF the fire department
was prompt. but owing TO the fact that
the terminals were not readily acces-
sible because of fences and tracks the
engines found difficulty in reaching
the flames
Largest Docks In World.
The Stuyvesant docks are the larg-
est single docks i'm the world. They
cost between $4,000. 900 and 10.000.-
O00. The two elevators on them are
the largest on tidewater anywhere in
the world One has a capacity OF a
million bushels. The docks are I50
feet wide and nearly a mile long. the
frontage on the river being 5000 feet.
In building them. a task which re-
qGsred over three years time. the piles
were sunk 10 a depth OF 120 feet and
were specially treated with creosote.
Dock system Elaborate.
The Stuyvesant docks stretch SOC
feet along the river front. from Dele
chaise 10 Foucher street. The docks
are equipped with an elaborate system
OF grain carriers. Each elevator has
a capacity Of 100000 bushels. OF