The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-12-26
BLAZE on
WATERFRONT
trrom aunaars Aavsrllsstl

Honolulu hau ute ihst miami which
might have been q cuuuaefatioa but
Tor the good woft ~ the department
The Davies warehouse AZ kekuanaoa
and naleknuwila streets somehow ie-
nlted and burned ON three sides. For
contents u had. among other things,
boiled oil. tar IN barrels, kerosene ana
excelsior packing. Shingles. hath and
railroad ties were piled against the
rear Of the building. material belonging
to big lumber yard near by.
The building which caught IRE was
about 20Ox2OO feet In dimensions The
lumber yard In the rear, running down
to Allen street was the property OF
Levers a Cooke. The building con-
tanned besides the things already listed
crockery packed In bales OF excelsior,
an assortment of hardware. mostly
cooking utensils. and the supplies OF
Davies paint department.
The structure was practically de-
stroyed on the waikiki side next to
Davies big brick warehouse, but the
EVA side next to Kekuanaoa street is
not badly damaged. Ii was here that
the oil was stored. The building and
contents were fully insured, said Mr..
Swanzy of Davies * Co, last night,
The value of either the building or
contents could not be ascertained as
everybody was out enjoying Christ
mas eve, but the warehouse is esti-
mated to have been worth about $1,000
and the loss on the contents is said
to be nominal.
County Sheriff Brown, whose men re-
sponded as promptly as did the fire.
men and stretched their fire ropes i'm
mediately, last night spoke in the
highest terms of the work of the fire
department. ut was a chance for a
big fire." said he, land they got it un-
der control in short order Honolulu's
fire department can always be depend
ed upon to control any fire we have
here as long as the water does not
give out on them"
At 1852 the alarm OF fire was turned
in from box IL corner of Fort and
Queen streets and the entire Central
station responded at once. The Buford
haQ Just locked and the street was full
of hacks and automobiles from the
Buford and Christmas shoppers. The
sight of the fire wagons coming down
the street at full tilt looked very me-
tropolitan to the Buford passengers.
Two steamers and a chemical ma
chine came in from the Central sta
ton and also two hose wagons. Later
the chief turned in two" call to Pa
lama and the Palama hose wagon came
in on the jump. The other steamers
and hose wagons were not needed and it
ha ort,,, NJ q
hardly at work before the one whis-
tie meaning fire under control" sound
ed out on the Christmas laden air,
much to the relief of the merry towns
folk f
The fire started in the mauka end of
the building, probably from spontane-
Gus combustion of the oil. 1t quick
ly spread to the excelsior crates in
which crockery was packed and in al
most no time at all the whole interior
of the building was in flames and the
corrugated iron sides were red and in
places at white heat. Axes were put
into immediate use. Two lines of hose
were turned into the front and two
more into the back The chemical hose
worked on the leanto on the Waikiki
side.
There were two sources of danger.
One the lumber yard in the rear which
caught fire almost Immediately and the
other the kerosene oil, of which It is
said quite a large quantity was stored
in the building. Without regard for
their lives, the firemen faced the
flames, dared an explosion of Oil and
in fifteen minutes the night was black
again, the fire being under control.
Shingles were sent flying high in the
air by the force of the water played on
them. These, with lath and railroad
ties were piled right against the iron
building and it was Hurculean task
to remove the upper ones, tie by tie,
and bundle by bundle, to get at the
flames below But 1t was done almost
before the people knew it.
Willing hands helped the firemen
handle the hose when they called for
more slack" and men of all grades,
high and low merchants and wharf
loafers, grabbed the canvas pipes car
rying safety to the town. Into the
building the firemen went, the hose SO
stiff from the pressure that 1t threw the
men almost off their feet Finally, just
in the nick of time, assistant Chief
Deering heard a noise and looking Ut
beheld the roof about to collapse. He
just had time to warn the men when
with a crash the iron roof fell to the
floor, but fortunately no one was hurt
At nine fifty the steamers were all
sent back to the station and from that
time the hose was attached to the n.y.
drants direct. At ten forty the last
vestige of the fire was put out and the
firemen returned to get a well earned
sleep. AS a precaution, however. one
line of hose was left attached to the
hydrant for the use of the special
policeman on watch in case of neces-
sity.
-s.%s.--
AM ATTAGK AE GR0IIP WARnED