Lovelock tribune. (Lovelock, Nev.) 1898-1912, 1907-05-24
SUNDAYS FIRE and
some OF ITS LESSONS
Mercantile Sheds and Lumber Yart
: Badly Damaged.
A Narrow Escape from Great Loss
Of Property in Town. Need
More Equipment for De-
partment.

Sunday afternoon witnessed one OF
the most disasterous fires that evel
visited Lovelock. 1t looked for n
time as though the entire extent OF
sheds, lumber piles and yards of tn.
Lovelock Mercantile Company would
be destroyed. But a lucky wind,
blowing strongly from the southwest,
carried the flames and cinders away
from the bulk of the sheds and lum-
Der onto the open fields.
The alarm was sounded at about
two o'clock and those answering the
call were Mortified to see the dense
clouds of sn oke rolling up from the
buildings in the rear of the Palm Sa-
loon, in the RED Light" district, and
next to the stables and sheds of the
Mercantile Lumber yards. The heavy
wind carried the flames right into the
lumber yards and soon the various
piles of lumber began to catch fire,
At the first tap of the fire bell
members of the Volunteer depart
ment ran for the hose carts and En-
gineer Hauskins was cutting a light
ening streak for his post at the en-
gine, which was soon in action and
forcing the water through the mains
at ah eighty-pound pressure.
The fireman were equally as quick
in making the hose connection on the
hydrant and stretching the hose to
the fire, but, alas, the hose upon the
trucks was too short and valuable
time was wasted in getting extra
lengths from other parts of town.
just as the firemen were about to
start playing the dampening stream of
water on the fire.-Pop bang g!-and
the cinders went flying into the air,
some of them being carried by the
strong wind across the slough and
into Ruddelps feed yard, setting fire
to the hay therein. These flames
were discovered and put out by a
bucket bigade before spreading to
the stacks and barns, or a serious
loss might have been suffered there.
When sufficient hose had been con-
nected to reach the fire the brave
lads turned the stream onto the
flames and advanced into the smoke
and heat as fast as they could endure
and soon had the fire under control
at that point. But embers were be-
ing carried to the lumber piles in all
parts of the yard. A bucket brigade
was soon organized, carrying and pas
sing buckets of water along a line
from the big pump next the Mercan-
lille, to the fire. If it had not been
for the Bucket Brigade the destruct-
ion of lumber would have been much
greater. After a time the water
was turned into the ditch running in
the rear Of the yard and water pas
sed from that.
The crowd of citizens fought des-
perately for over two hours, before
the danger of general destruction
of the entire yards was passed and
the stream from the hose was kept
playing on the embers for fully three
hours, before all danger was passed.
Manager Baker of the Mercantile
Company estimates the loss at about
$3OOO, which Is partially covered by
insurance. But he regrets more than
anything else that one Of their horses
was burned to death. The animal
had been gotten safely out of danger
with the other horses, but rushed
back into the flames. One of the
firemen seeing that the animal could
not be rescued, mercifully shot it be-
fore it was roasted alive. The other
loss was of buildings vehicles, i'm
plements, lumber, etc.
SOME OF THE LESSONS.
From the experience in the past