Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1912-12-16
S5OO,OOO FIRE TO
Be INVESTIGATED
Paterson Authorities Get Busy
in Rigid Inquiry as to
Cause.
INJURED WATCHMAN WHO
MADE LEAP MAY RECOVER
Heaviest Loser Formerly New
ark Business Man-Dyna-
mite Endangered Firemen.
From "a stan Correspondent !


time threatened the entire business
section of the city. Several theories
have been advanced as to the starting
of the fire, but in the opinion of the
firemen the fire must have been
smouldering for several days.
| 1t was shortly after o'clock yes
| terday morning when flames were
discovered coming from Diskon's de-
| partment store. Shortly afterward
| an explosion took place which forced
! the store windows on the Van Houten
street side. The next instant q sheet
| of flame shot across the street, set
| ting fire to the Van Wrinkle hardware
| store. Once inside the building the
fire swept through it. In the mean
time the flames had completely
quilted the Diskon building, and had
spread to the moving-picture theatre
adjoining. Sections of the roof OF
the Diskon building had fallen down
into the building, where the Grand
Union Tea Company is located. In
less than half an hour after the fire
was discovered these buildings were
a mass of flames and the surrounding
streets were black with smoke.
Entire Departmet Out.
Three alarms were sent in and the
entire f1re-fighting apparatus in the
city was called out.
When the firemen arrived they rea-
lized that nothing could be done for
the burning buildings and set to work
to check the fire from spreading. A
stream of water was kept playing on
the P. A. Simmons storage ware
house, a three-s story building adjoin-
ing the Diskon store, but this at
tempt was futile, and the flames were
not checked until the Simmons ware
house had been completely destroyed.
In the meantime the tongues of
flame that shot from the windows of
The blazing department store reached
across the street to tie southwest
corner of Main and Van Houton
streets to. the four story brick build
ing owned by the Gerdsley estate, of
Philadelphia, the ground floor of
which is occupied by 4 moving pic
ture theatre AMI the upper floors by
a business college. For 2 time the
firemen thought they could check the
fire in the Gerdsley building, but the
flames ate their way 10 an elevator
shaft and in less than an hour the
entire building was doomed.
Firemen Remove Dynamite.
An arch of fire spanned Main and
Van Houten streets by this time.
Flames were licking up both sides of
Main street and on opposite sides Of
Van Houten street. Suddenly a cry
was heard announcing that guam
tity of dynamite was stored in the
hardware store of j. Van Wrinkle,
which adjoined the Gerdsley building
in Van Houten street. Mr.. Van Win
kle had arrived himself and told the
f1renen where the explosive was
stored.
Volunteers were summoned and
just as the blaze jumped to the hard
ware structure several of the firemen
groped their way into the smoke
filed hardware store. 1t took the
flremen some time to find the dyna-
mite, but they were successful. Less
than five minutes after they had car
ried the explosive to the street the
hardware store was in flames from
cellar to roof.
From the hardware store the flames
spread to the Thomas Anderson build
ing, another four story structure ad-
joining the hardware store. The
ground floor is a wholesale tea and
coffee establishment and the upper
floors are occupied by numerous ten
ants. Every effort was made to
check the blaze before it reached this
structure but the efforts Of the fire
men were unsuccessful and in a short
time the flames were shooting
through the roof of that structure.
Biggest Blaze Since 1902.
The withdrawal of firemen from the
Anderson building gave the blaze in
Van Houten street a fresh start, and
in less than ten minutes the Wool
worth building. adjoining the Ander-
son building, was on fire. Chief Coyle
again returned part of his men to
that building. another three-story
structure, realizing the necessity Of
checking the fire from extending
further in Van Houten street. While
he was successful in this, conflning
the fire at that point to the Wool
worth building, which was gutted,
another building, adjoining the Grand
Union Tea Companys building, be-
gan to burn.
This building, another three-story
brick structure. and owned by Diskon,
was occupied by l. tHorwitz. a tailor,
and several other business establish
ments on the upper floors. Here
again Chief Coyle fought to check
the spread of the flames further in
that direction and was again sue
cessful.
Not since the fire Of 1902. when
$4,000, 900 damage was done, has Pat
erson had so big a blaze. Then the
City Hall and the heart Of the bust
ness section was wiped out.
May Save Watchman's Life.
At the General Hospital today hope
was being held out for Joseph Popp,
night watchman for the Diskon Dry
Goods Company, who was trapped by
the flahes, and forced to jump from
the third story of the building into a
life net. He struck the edge of the
net, his feet hitting the asphalt pave
ment.
John ]. Diskon, president of the
company, which is the heaviest loser
of yesterdays catastrophe, came to
this city from Newark about three
years ago. and opened the department
store here. He quickly gained the
public's confidence, and from the very
beginning the store orosnered