The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-02
Starting in Blind Cellar Flames Rage for Hours While Bremen Pour
 Water In Entire Stock of Wilson 6 Rusling, Fashionable Tail ors, Is Destroyed; Loss
 $18,O00
Silk Underwear, Hats, Cloth ing and Costly Woolen Fabrics Precipitated Into Fire By Falling Floor Damage to Building, $3,- OOO1Property Insured


 000-Property Insured
 For nearly three hours firemen battled this morning to keep terrific fire confined within the tailoring shop and haberdashery of Wilson & Rus ling, 9S2 Main street, where the blaze started in a blind cellar at the rear of the building. They were success full in stopping the fire, but the loss will amount to s1S,O00, of which $15,- 900 is upon the stock and about s3,- 900 on the building. The latter is owned jointly by Frank Stillman, Charles H. Hinman, and E. B. Corn ing.
 Had the fire remained another hour without discovery Bridgeport might have had the most costly conf1agra- ton it's business section has known for years. The book store of H. H. tailoring establishment, had some water damage in its cellar and smoke damage in the store proper. Betts, the photogra pher. whose studio is located over the seat of the fire, and the A. B. c. Club, which has it's tained losses, by smoke. Tenants on the fourth floor escaped with scare.
 One has but to visit the scene and view the ruins to realize that the f1remen fought like trojans. For the first time in the history of the de- partment Chief Mooney had his men cut a hole through a solid masonry wall of a cellar to reach a fire in an adjoining cellar.
 Policeman Edward Mccarthy dis lost no time in sending in an alarm from Box 37, at Wall and Main streets. Chemical Go. No. 1, Engine companies 1, 5, and 8, and No. 1 and 2 Truck companies responded with Chief Edward Mooney and Assistant Chief Daniel Johnson.
 The crew of the chemical engine, which was the first to arrive, found the smoke thicker than at any time in their experience. Several attempts to locate the seat of the fire were futile. For several minutes fireman his way through the dense smoke to the fire. John T. Connors, acting aid to the chief, put on the smoke helmet and entered, while air was pumped that the cellar was partitioned off with a brick wall and that the fire was behind the wall.
 The firemen were unable to find any rear entrance. An attempt was made to get through the front cellar
 
 through from the rear, and forced them out. A large quantity of rub Dish and stock in the front cellar was ignited. The chief had a hole cut in the floor and a nozzle inserted to hold the fire there. The inaccessi- bility of the fire in the blind cellar led the chief to believe that it would not be long before the fire burned away the floor timbers. Lines of hose from No. and No. Engine
 
 with lines directed through skylights and the truck companies were set at work battering a hole through the stone wall from the cellar of Long ley's resta urant located to the south of the tailor shop.
 When the floor timberS had burned through, the floor of the entire rear half of the store collapsed, dumping the principal part of the costly stock of the fashionable tailoring stablish- ment into the flames. This was a crucial moment. The flames shot through the skylights where Capt F'reyler, of No. g company, and As sistant Chief Johnson, with No. company, were stationed. It was a fight between fire and water with human pluck backing the water. Wa ter won, and inside of 10 minutes the fire was under control. No. Engine company closed in from the front cellar.
 The blind cellar where the fire started was under an addition built to the building several years after the completion of the original building. There was no way of getting into it from the rear.
 John A. Rusling, of the firm of Wilson & Rusling, said this morning that the tailors did their sponging in the rear cellar, but there was no fire in use there.
 MT. Rusling used to hold the job of state fire marshal, but he was at a loss to know how this fire started, unless it was from the electric wires which ran along the ceiling.
 The firms greatest loss is in its patterns. The firm does a very large business and all of the patterns of some of its best dressers and richest customers were lost in a cabinet which was plunged into the cellar with the rest of the burning debris.
 Many dozens of silk underwear, worth anywhere from $6 to $10 a suit fell into the burning hole, when tables gave way with the floor. Many bolts of costly woolen cloth also van ished. There was chaos in the hat department. When the insurance men arrived they surveyed the ruins of the stock and said, Its a go per cent. loss"
 The addition at the rear of the building above the second story, is a frame structure, covered with cor rugated iron. The building, as a fire trap, cannot be duplicated.
 The insurance men who turned out to the fire this morning thought the big fire in the center of the city they have been predicting had arrived. But the f1remen prevented.
 Many suits of clothing that were just completed for customers of the firm as well as many left to be over hauled were lost.
 Before noon today Wilson & Rus ling had secured temporary quarters for their tailoring department in the Hincks & Johnson building, at Can non and Broad streets, and a few hours later they were open for busi- ness as usual.