Arizona republican., 1911-09-16
Plant of the Arizona Al falfa Milling Company, Fired by Defective Wire, Was Burned to the Ground This Morning.
LOSS IS COMPLETE
 WITH NO INSURANCE
Bremen Were Helpless to Combat the Flames as There Was Practically No Water Pressure in That Section.

Wrapped in flames that started from a defective electric wire, the splendid plant of the Arizona Alfalfa Milling company. near Fourteenth avenue and Jackson street. went down to ruin at an early hour ves- terday morning: and in little more than an hour S5O,O0O worth Of property had been converted into eith- CT heap of smoldering ashes or into twisted and broken pieces of metal The loss is as complete as could we'll De imagined. The building is com plete loss. as is the expensive machin- cry Not to exceed $2OO worth Of grain and alfalfa were taken from the bull ding. that amount representing the to- tai salvage And worst of all. not a cent of insurance was carried ol either the building or its contents
 It was about five o'clock that tha fire started. IL was first discovered by the night watchman who promptly turned in an alarm and soon the shrieking of whistles and the cIamo- of the fire bell warned the people of Phoenix of another destructive con- flagratiOn Although it was not vet light when the alarm sounded. within few minutes crowd of hundreds of people had gathered to watch the prog ress Ot the destructive flames The location of the building is out side the cit-- limits but desnite that fact the city fire department respond ed to the alarm and did all that was possible under the circumstances to prevent the spread of the flames. This was little enough however. as there was no water pressure worthy of the name The water has been carried to the factory from a small main a block away but it was impossible to r.~ch the fire with the puny stream The tiremen and several volunteers from among the spectators fought the flames at close range. but all they could do was as nothing in the face of the in .surmountable difficulties with which they were confronted: and it was soon seen that the building. it's stock of grain. and the expensive machinery with which is was equipped. were doomed.
 It is said that # there had been a good water pressure the flames could have been controlled without Gifficul- tv: but as it was they soon spread to all parts of the factory and were soon communicated tO the hay sheI to tho east With the abandonment of the fight against the fire. attempts were made tO save some of the grain with which the building was stored; but this attempt also had soon to he given over as it was but a short time until the faTing of parts of the roof rend- cred this work so hazardous that none dared undertake 1t.
 The building was of corrugated iron. supported on a timber framework. IL took but short time for the timbers to burn away when the metal parts of the building began falling in
 The fire started in the roof of the factory building and spread rapidly. It made a magnificent spectacle. especial " after the flames had been com municated to the large hay shed to the east of the building.
 Tn this hay shed were 900 tons Of a1- falfa. while in the main building were four carloads of sacks of barley. There was also a large quantity of loose bar ley in the bin and some of the com .pany's manufactured product also was in the building.
 The destruction of the machinery caused the heaviest loss. This machin- cry was valued at s25.OOO. while the building was worth about 5000. The hay. grain and manufactured products destroyed by the fire were worth about s2O.000.
 The officers of the Arizona Alfalfa Milling company are A F. McCaleh. president: C. n. Young. treasurer and manager; and F. R. Brown. secretary The two men last named were present and witnessed the destruction of the plant. Mir. McCaleb is in Los Angeles
 (Continued on Page S)