The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1910-06-17
SUNDAY EVENING FIRE
The Railroad Round House IN the
East Part of Town Burned
to the Ground.

evening the railroad round house, sit
uated in the east part of town, and re-
mote from all other buildings, was dis
covered to be on fire. No alarm was
sounded, and many of the inhabitants
did not know fire was in progress
until the building was about consumed.
Although frame structure, and not
more than a she'll, the fire seemed to
burn slowly to those on the ground,
and had there been any means Of ex-
tinguishing the blaze near at hand the
building could probably have been
saved. On account of the liberal use
of oil upon the machinery during a
number of years the hoor>was pretty
thoroughly saturated, and the interior
burned fiercely. Within an hour after
smoke was first seen issuing from the
roof the building was level with the
ground. 1t was a three-stall round
house, but only two engines were in
stalls, Nos. $50 and 998, used on the
Spokane and Princeton run. The big
engines were pretty thoroughly cooked,
all the wood work was burned away
and much of the iron warped. The
boiler of No. 99S was full of water, and
hence is not as greatly damaged as
No. $50.
The cause of the fire is mystery.
Occurring in broad daylight, it is
hardly possible that it could have been
of incendiary origin. T. e. Collier,
who has charge of the round house,
states that he was at work at the forge
up to o'clock Sunday afternoon, and
there was no indications Of shoulder
ing fire at that time. 1t is also said
that some railroad men were in the
building about $50, and there was no
sign of fire. AS rule there is no one
at the round house Sunday afternoons
until o'clock in the evening, when
Mr.. Collier goes on duty. He was just
about to start to work when the fire
was discovered, and it was-too late
then to rescue the engines, even II
they had had steam up.
A very singular coincident in con-
nection with fires in Oroville is that q
fire has never occurred excepting on a
calm day. This seems to be providen-
tial in country where the wind is al
most in constant circulation, and gen.
orally blowing hard. Sunday evening
hardly breath of air was stirring.
When first the building was discovered
to be on fire large column Of black
smoke arose to great height, and
when the flames burst forth there was
no more air in circulation than the in
tense heat created Immediately at the
building.
1t is difficult to estimate the loss.
The building itself probably did not
cost more than $1,000 or $1,000. The
engines were old ones and they may
not be so seriously damaged but what
they can be repaired. One may have
to go to the scrap heap. Possibly s5,-
600 would fully cover the loss. The
railroad company carries blanket is
surance covering all Of its property
liable to destruction by fire, and hence
the loss, whatever it may be, is not
total.
By the time the roof fell in the fact
that fire was in progress had leaked
through town, and large crowd OF
men, women and children collected on
the fiat watching the progress of the
flames. After everything combustible
had been consumed, the chemical en-
CINE was hauled to the scene, but toe
late to be of any service. The engine
house is so remote from the fire that
it could not have been brought into
action in time to save the building,
even had it been run out at the first
alarm.
At the time Of writing it is not
known what the company will do in
the matter of replacing the building
destroyed, but it is hoped that much
larger round house, modernly equipped
| II i