Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-09
FOUR BUILDINGS BURNED;
LOSS CLOSE TO $4,000
Jackson Brothers, Furniture Dealers,
Worst SuRerer.
ORIGIN IS NOT DETERMINED
Waterman Smelled Smoke, But
Could Not Find Fire-Apartment
House Blaze at Same
Time.

! a flve-aiarm IRE that called out nearly
every fireman In the District broke out
| In the cellar of Jackson Brothers furni-
ture store, a1a-g23 eth street northwest
shortly after Z O'Clock this morning, and
IN an hesf had ruined everything in that
store and hsd burned out two floors OF
the Peoples pharmacy. 927 7th street.
| With the tremendous flood Of water
| from practically the whole nre depart
ment. the store Of william Bowen, hard
ware merchant, ut B1t 7th street, and the
paint and glars store Of G. e. Hodgkin.
va 7th street. were badly damaged. A
| first ertimats Of tho damage made BY
Fire Marshal Nicholson this morning
reached nearly 100000. divided a. fol-
| lows:
jackson Brothers. loss. $4,000: insur-
ance. $4,000.
Peoples pharmacy. loss $4,000. covered
| by insurance.
| William Bowen, loss. $500. covered by
insurance.
c.. E. Hodgkin. $1,000. covered by In
surance.
Fires Origin Not Known.
| The origin of the fire is not known.
| The loss to the buildings occupied by the
furniture store will probably reach $a0.-
OOO. Floors are burned through, wallis
are wrecked. and the interior Of The
C<o
charred furniture and smashed beams
| Hundreds upon hundreds OF thousands
of gallons OF water poured into the build-
ing from every window and from tie
water tower. which played lao gallons
a minute on the blazing roof. filled the
cellar. SO that from the basement to the
tin on the roof there Is scarcely q stick
| left of any value. As soon as the ore
| would permit a hasty examination was
| made to see if the office records In the
| safe were intact, and it was found that
| the big iron chest had withstood the
| flames.
| 1t was the worst fire the city has had
In years. With the streets clogged with
| snow the horses had a hard pull to GET
to it. Some of the outlying companies
! found their horses well tuckered out By
the time the plug had been reached
| Old-time firemen, among them Chief
| Wagner and his aid. Deputy Chief SuIli-
van, say that there has been nothing
exactly like this fire. with the possible
| exception of the Academy fire one winter
morning several years ago.
Ice Made Task Frightful
/ Ice forming on the scores of ladders
| that were thrust into the burning window
sashes made fire fighting at am.
| frightful task. Gallons Of water falling
| on the men as they stood on the rungs
! froze almost Immediately As the firemen
| swarmed up the ladders their clothes
stiffened and became unbearably heavy
| under the load Of ice. Ice formed on the
| long lines of hose. The water dripping
| into the cutters overran the hose and
made 1t as stiff as steel bars. The men
dragging the hose into the building by
every window that was not too hot 10
| bear found the ice had loaded the lines
to a back breaking weight In spite Of
the handicaps OF cold, ice, snow and
| tremendous headway Of the flames. Chief
Wagner and his aids did the thing they
aimed to do, and that was to keep the
| flames from spreading to the rest OF the
| block Between the remaining business
| houses on 7th street and the fire stood
| the great quantity Of paint and oil in
Hodgkin's store. It was on that store
| that the greatest effort was made.
False Alarm Sounded.
All the downtown hre apparatus was
n
false alarm from 7th and M streets.
| 1t was a disgruntled' lot OF fremen who
| returned through the ice and snow after
| that experience. Chief Wagner was de-
| livering himself Of a few choice remarks
| on the subject Of fools who ring an
alarm box In the middle Of the night
| Just to see the engines run. He was in
| the midst Of his most heated expression
| when the alarm came In from 7th and
| New York avenue.
THAT fool Is going down the line pull
ing all the boxes" said the Chief New
ertheless after the companies had gone
out on this alarm. the chief called up
| headquarters.
Have you heard anything from that
The headquarters operator said that
Chief Sullivan had just turned in second
alarm on it. With that Chief Wagner
jumped into his red automobile and went
| to the fire at sixty miles an hour.
When he got there It looked az II fire
was shooting from every window In
Jackson Brothers store. The first thing
he did was to pull a third alarm and
a few minutes later a fourth alarm. The
flames and the thickest Of the hre were
SO near the south end OF the building
adjacent to the paint, store that q NTH
alarm was pulled for the ilrst time in
good many years. The only engines
v,bicb did not run on this alarm were
in the outlying districts.
The watertower which ran on the sec.
ond alarm was put In the middle OF lth
street and two engines coupled to II. The
roof Of the furniture store was ablaze
and ordinary fire fighting would not do.
The. pipe Of the water tower was raised
minute were played upon 1t.
Half Mile Of Apparatus.
yzrt,aa all thu annaYafua had dnaliy