Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1906-01-18
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE
At STOVE WORKS

or more the late OF the prosperous ana
steady running plant hung trembling
in the balance; that it was not de
stroyed was due solely to the good
management the well directed and
heroic efforts of the firemen.
The fire abounded III sensational feat
ures To begin with it was located in
the part of the plant in which extra
ordinary precautions are taken to avoid
fire-the portion in which are stored
the patterns needed for the various
lines of stoves and furnaces manufac-
tured and which represent value of
at least S75, 600. To protect this por-
tion of the plant i'll case fire should
break out elsewhere about the place
the doors on the outside are lined with
sheet iron, while the windows are pro-
tected with shutters also lined on the
| outside with iron The very precau-
tions adopted to exclude the fire from
the patterns yesterday served to contine
| the flames to that portion of the build
ings and probably prevented wholesale
destruction.
The fire broke out very few min
utes after o'clock William Linker,
the shipper, was busy in the first floor
of the warehouse when he saw a sheet
of flame pouring into the building
from the first floor of the brick annex,
on the second and third floors of which
are stored the patterns. Quick as
thought he slammed the large double
door shut and gave the alarm of fire.
The next moment the office seut i'll an
alarm to the Washington Fire Com
pany by telephone When the fire was
discovered the d. l.. & W. switch en-
gine was at the stove works and it was
the very first to sound the alarm,
whistling loud and long. The import
of the shrill whistle was at once un-
derstOod and when the next moment
the familiar whistle of the stove works
took up the alarm the fire was easily
located even by people in the remote
parts of town.
The Washington Hose Company
was situated conveniently near. An
other favorable circumstance was that
a good many members of that company
are employed at the Stove Works and
are not only acquainted with the ins
and outs of the place but yesterday
were right on the ground ready for ac-
tion. As soon as the fire was discover
ed the Stove works team was sent gal
Hoping over TO the Washes hose
house and in a few minutes can e
dashing back with the hose carriage
loaded down with an abundance of
hose. The Goodwill Hose Company
was a close second, its carriage loaded |
with hose being brought over by the |
team of the Hanover Brewing Com |
pany The two other companies were |
soon on the ground, the response of the
fire department on the whole being re
prompt indeed.
BY the time the firemen arrived the |
flames had enveloped nearly one-half
of the lower story and had burned
the floor above and was gain
ing considerable headway in the sec
ond story right among the patterns.
The firemen, many of whom were en-
ploves and familiar with conditions
realized that extreme care would have
to be exercised in fighting the flames
if any attempt was to be made 10 save
the valuable patterns. Every precau-
tion would have To be taken to prevent
a draught. But here another difficulty
presented itself. The burning wood
work was all of pine and the smoke in
the closed building was dense black
volume in which no human being
could live and yet to play i'll through
the windows with the hose, smashing
the glass would be to admit current
of air that would hurry the flames
along on their career of destruction
and after all would give the tiremen
only questionable advantage, 1t was
safer plan to carry the
hose into the building facing the smoke
as long as the men could stand it, one
gang relieving the other as fast as
they felt themselves being overcome by
the dense smoke, which was every two
or three minutes. At one time four
hose were playing on the buildings
two attached to the fire plug recently
installed east of the plant and two to
the old plug in the yard west Of the .
plant Such heroic work in the face
of such obstacles has never been wit
messed in Danville Relay after relay
of men would drag the hose into the
burning building only to be driven out
again blinded and choking after a few
in the dense smcke. Their
persistence, however, brought its re-
ward the flames were checked and
finally wholly extinguished with only ,
a minimum of damage wrought.
A visit to ,the works Monday re-
vealed the peril in which the plant
stood during the fire About one-half
of the woodwork on the first floor is
nearly wholly destroyed and will have
to be rebuilt along with a portion of
the floor and some of the woodwork on
the second story.
Another minute and the flames
would have been among the patterns,
which are stored mostly about the
middle and the northern end of the
second floor. As it is the delicate pat +.
terms are badly damaged. In good
many instances the follow boards are
burned in others they are soaked
with water and are warped, while the
finely polished iron patterns are rust
ing where drenched with water or are
covered with a thick sticky substance
deposited by the smoke. There are
hundreds of patterns all of which will
have to be gone over; the damaged fol-