The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-12-03
INCENDIARY FIRE
DESTROYS $4,000
B'WAY PROPERTY
RehkOpf Buggy Warehouse at
1896 Broadway, Burns
Down, and TheO Peters,
Place is DamagedlS everely--
Partial Insurance,
BOARDING HOUSE sCoRCHED

1ncendiary fire, which started this
morning at 1920 o'clock, destroyed
the warehouse of the e. Rehkopf
Buggy company building, 1886
Broadway, and damaged the old Max
well hotel, occupied by Theobold
Peters as hotel and restaurant. en-
falling a loss of about SIS, 900, about
two thirds covered by insurance.
The fire, which had its origin in
the warehouse building, was discov-
cred by Patrolmen Barber and
Prince, who turned in an alarm by
telephone to central station. When
the officers first discovered the fire
the entire warehouse building seemed
to be ablaze and'i 1t was too late to
save anything whatever in the ware
house.
The Maxwell hotel. owned and oc-
cupied by Theo. Peters, stands Just
west of the warehouse, and in a few
minutes after the fire was discovered
the hotel caught fire. Mr.. Peters
was in the pool room, where several
railroad men were playing pool, and
he said that before he knew any
thing of the fire in the warehouse
his place was on fire.
Mrs. Peters, who was asleep up
stairs with her three children, had
two narrow escapes. She went down
the steps the first time, while the
curtains and draperies on the stair
ways We're burning and falling all
around her. After she reached the
street Mrs, Peters thought of some
valuable papers upstairs and rushed
back to get them. When she start
ed to come back she was cut of from
the stairway. Fireman John McFad-
den placed a ladder in position un-
der a window and she came safely
down the ladder. Mr.. Peters carried
81, 500 insurance on the house,
which is almost a total loss. He also
carried small insurance on the furn-
iture and fixtures.
A shoe shop owned by r. NJ. Dem
mis- was a total loss.
| IL Was Incendiary.
| Mr.. John G. Rehkopf, when seen
this morning, was at loss to under
stand how the fire originated unless
It was the work of an lncendiary. "I
cannot tell how much my loss will
amount to-" said Mr.. Rehkopf.
There were $50 vehicles and quite
a lot of other goods. | have dis
covered this morning that there were
a lot of saddles in the warehouse
that | did not know were there. Our
loss will be about s12 900 with So
500 insurance.
The warehouse building was own
ed by the Gilbert estate at Murray,
and was insured.
Firemen Do Good Work.
The firemen from Nos. and 4 and
Central station, who answered the
alarm. say 1t was one of the hottest
fires they ever encountered, and hard
work was required to stop the pro-
gress of the blaze on account OF the
many wooden structures that were
near. Chief Wood was st the fire.
answering the first alarm, and per-
sonally directed his men.
The boarding house of WIN. Kinds.
1882 Broadway, was damaged by the
heat and caught fire in number of
places. A continuous stream of wa
ter from the hose was required to
keep the place from burning.
Several negro houses in the rear
were scorched.
This morning at o'clock the
Peters house was found to be burn
ing again and the Nos. and COM
panies were called again. staying at
the place some time before putting
out the fire. which was smoldering
in several places.
A fire. which started in the ware
house building ten days ago, at
labout the same hour in the morning
was believed to have been incendiary.
but was discovered in time to pre-
vent any damage.