Arizona republican., 1910-06-25
THE STOVE
 EXPLODED Resulting in Destruction of
 Tailoring Shop THE BUILDING DAMAGED The Tomlinson Office and Reading Room Damaged By Fire and Water and the Armory of c Com pany Scorched.
1 THE BUILDING DAMAGED

1 Fire yesterday forenoon at eleven
 o'clock completely destroyed the tail
 bring shop between the Tomlinson &, | Bouveas buildings and badly damaged ! both of those structures But for the | heroic work of the fire department,
 both buildings would have burned in
 a very short time. for even though | brick, there was enough lumber about
 them to supply fuel for the flames and all were as dry as finder.
 Stove Exploded.
 | The gasoline stove used in the tail- 1 bring shop conducted by Boyd and
 Thompson. two coIored men. vas di- rectly responsible for the fire It
 exploded, scattering the burning oil | over the building and over Mir.
 Thompson. He rushed out of doors | and succeeded in eXtinguishing the 1 flames on his person but not until he l had sustained a rather severe burn on | the arm. Hurrying back to the build | ing with the idea of carryng out the burning stove he found the interior of | the building a sheet of flames. The shop was constructed of frame and corrugated iron and the frame part of it burned like oil.
 G. R. Pinch was one of the first to see the flames and turned in the alarm In a short time q stream of water was playing on the building but by that time the awnings of the Tom linson building were on fire and the frame part of that building. occupied by the TOmlinson real estate office was all aflame. Two frame rooms in
 the rear of the real estate office were
 wiped out but the quick work of the department prevented the spread of
 the flames any further.
 The Damage.
 The tailoring shop. owned by w. J
 Kingsbury was a total loss. Boyd and
 Thompson were unable to save a thing and several residents lost clothing that
 had been taken there to be cleaned and pressed. In one corner of the
 building Jim Polissis conducted shoe shop. He too, lost everything together
 with a few customers shoes. His loss consisted not only of his stock and machinery but also of his bed. trunk and clothing and something over fifty dollars in cash. He was just pre- pared to meet a payment on a supply of leather and in his trunk had forty dollars in currency. In his bed was another small amount in bills. Both were destroyed.
 The BOuveas building was not dam aged nearly as badly as at frs. ap- peared. The small room adjoining the tailoring shop was occupied by liar TiS and Company'S real estate office Fire did no damage in that room but MT. Harris desk, being opened, the contents were badly damaged by wa ter. The main portion of the building was occupied by the armOrv of c company. Much of the equipment of the company was carried out the back door and the loss to the company amounts to little or nothing. The front of the building was damaged by the heat and the roof was pretty badly burned. Aside from that it suffered to no great extent. The owner is at pres ent in Texas but was notified bv wire. It could not be ascertained yesterday whether any insurance was carried on it or not.
 To the north of the tailoring shop was the Tomlinson office. The fire l made such headway that the desks. l chairs, etc, were badly charred in it l before water was turned on. The wa ter, however, reached the spot soon ! enough to prevent the total deStruC- l tion of the papers in the office, though | they were more or less diSfigurcd by l smoke and water. The two rooms back | of the office were a total loss and | Harry Felt, who occupied one of them | lost the greater part of his clothing. | Adjoining the office on the north was i the Tempe Free Reading room. Many | of the papers in it were burned and | water soaked but the large and valu able collection of books belonging to the library association were little in iured. The cases were somewhat scorched and the glass in one was broken.
 The TomlinsOn residence and room ing house came out in first class shape considering the circumstances. II The porch was pretty well burned but the interior was little damaged. Most )f the furniture was carried out dur ing the fire as matter of precaUtion. The Tomlinsons were we'll protected Il Dy insurance.
 Taking it all in all. the fire was handled in fine shape, notwithstanding | slight delay in getting the water on. The hose cart from East Tempe was llso hurried to the scene and in a title while two streams of water were ective service.