The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1914-05-01
BASKET FACTORY
DESTROYED BY FIRE
LOSS ABOUT $4,000, WITH INSUR-
ANCE OF $4,000
Fire Started in Boiler Room and Burned
with Great Rapidity. Future
Uncertain

to the door OF ner nome, dlScOVereu
what appeared to be a fire in the engine
room of the basket factory. Realizing
fully the Importance of the discovery
she apprised her husband of what she
had seen and the latter hastily ran over
to the plant, where through crevice
in the door he found that the fire had
already assumed serious proportions.
A general alarm was, of course, at
once given, large crowd speedily col
lected, and hundreds of willing hands
were waiting for an opportunity to do
something helpful. But in the way of
saving the plant it was possible to do
but little. Before the fire engine reach
ed the scene, before, indeed, an efficient
bucket brigade could be organized, the
factory. which was big frame building,
dry as tinder and soaked with lubricat-
ing oil in many places, was seething,
roaring furnace. To have stopped the
progress of such fire, with a strong
wind tanning it, would have been an i'm
possibility, no matter how extensive the
equipment for doing it, and the fire
company wisely turned its efforts to
protecting several dwellings and a barn
that stood in range of the strong wind
and flying embers. The dwellings were
those of Mrs. Chauncey Stevens, whose
barn also was threatened, the Farms
worth house and outbuildings, Mrs.
Danby's house, the Conquest property
and the house of AL Ruby. All of these
were on fire several times, we are told,
so that in saving them the fire depart
ment performed very efficient service.
If an equally strong wind had been blow
ing from the opposite direction and the
burning embers had been carried onto
the roof of the lumber warehouse or
the table factory. the results might
have been far more serious.
As the fire in the main building be-
came hotter it was communicated first
to a warehouse on the west and then to
a shed, both of which were quickly de-
stroyed. Then, the warehouse on the
south side of the mill, containing about
a car load of baskets, justmanufactured,
caught fire and, while it burned slowly.
was ultimately destroyed. The bucket
brigade did energetic service in en-
deayoring to save this building, but as
there were no ladders available so as to
get upon the roof, the effort was un-
availing. The baskets, however, were
carried to a place of safety in the old
Cody building. In the work of saving
the baskets, not only from the fire but
from the rain which came later in the
night, the Messenger would compliment
half dozen or so of young boys who
worked like beavers. The ladies of the
neighborhood also worked faithfully in
pumping and handling pals of water.
and large force of citizens and bust
ness men did strenuous work in NOV
ing several piles of lumber which stood
close to the burning buildings.
The gasoline engine was taken to the
creek as being the nearest available
water supply, and the old hand engine,
early in the progress of the fire, was
attached to cistern at the corner of New
and Vienna streets, but as there was no
one present who understood arranging
its valves it was not brought into use.
When danger to adjoining residence
property had mainly subsided the hose
was brought over to the factory site and
efficient work was done in protecting
logs and lumber piles and about 300
cords of wood belonging to Harvey Cum
minis.
The cause of the fire is largely a mat
ter of guess work. Chas. Graham, the
engineer, says that no fresh fuel was
put into the furnaces after g. 10 o'clock,
following which he swept the boiler
room and sprinkled the floor in front of
the furnace doors. Another man, ex-
perienced in such matters, thinks there
may have been an explosion of gas
under the boilers, in which case fire
could have been carried into the blower
communicating with the main factory
building, which would account for the
rapid spread of the flames.
Chsuncey Stevens, pioneer lumber
man first erected the main part of the
factory, then a saw mill, in West Vienna,
in 1878, following a fire which destroyed
an earlier building in that year. The
frame was of hewn white pine, and was
gotten out in the woods near where it
was originally erected. In 1892 the mill
was moved to Clio where it was used as
a saw and planning mill and where mi |
lions of feet of lumber have been pro-
duced and dressed through its opera
tion. Marshall E. Smith, who owned