Mohave County miner. [volume] (Mineral Park, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1882-1918, 1916-07-15

= That Oatman's business district is
mot in ashes today and number of
people who are walking about uncon-
cerned are not charred corpses, is only
through one of those queer dispense
tions of Providence, which seemed to
have it mapped out the other way to
save the town and lives of its inhabi-
tants in spite of themselves. The Sim
mons cafe is a total loss, the Oatman
Ice and Cold Storage company escaped
with slight damage and the Arizona
Stores meat market got out of it by
only a fraction wide margin. The same
may be said not only of the st. Fran
els, Oatman and Grimes hotels, but of
every business house in town.
1t was 3 o'clock yesterday morning
when the fire started. Richard Marks,
who is president of the Cooks and
Walters union, was cook at the Sim
mons cafe. He arrived at that hour
and proceeded to light the fire in the
distillate range Through an accumu-
lation of gas, or some similar cause,
there was burst of flame and the
place was on fire in an instant after
q match was touched to the burner.
Flames and smoke filled the room,
bursting out at all openings. A gen
eral alarm of fire was cried out on
the streets and one of the first to put
his actions to good account was Hec
Maffei, who has the night shift at
Charles Bouchard's lunch counter, OPP
posite the auto park. Maffei alone
pulled the hose cart up to the FIRE,
made a connection, and with the aid
of William Calvin, who is employed
at the ice plant and is known as
Smoky" a stream was on the fire IN
a very few. seconds. 1t did good work,
too, and the fire may be said to have
been, placed virtually under control
from that moment.
In the meantime the United Eastern
whistle sounded several calliope blasts
and the bell rang a few taps, and
what was a deserted street at the lat
ter end of the night turned into solid
mass of surging humanity. Thirty
one husky firemen and their chief,
Walter Fleming, were on the ground
at the very first and bravely took up
the work where their predecessors had
started it. One of the first and most
hazardous feats was to disconnect and
get rid of a drum of distillate on the
roof, that was connected with the
range.
The flames went up in the air Is to
20 feet above the building, and out of
eVery,opening of the north end. 1t was
a lively and very hot fire, but circum-
stances combined to make its career
short.
The water pressure was all that
could be desired, rejecting great TO-
thought in placing special water TANKS
up the side of the mountain back OF
the city. There was sufficient force to
raise the water $50 feet in the air
from the nozzles, and this is what in
duced the flames to yield up the ghost
and decide to quiet when they did. But
it took an hour and half to finish
the work of putting out the fire.
Long before it was over it was evil
dent that the loss of the restaurant
was complete. VIC. Simmons, owner,
stated that it would amount to $500
for his outfit, including all dishes and
utensils of every kind, refrigerator,
cash register, counter, and, in fact,
everything he had in the place. The
range alone may be repaired and used
again.
The flames of themselves, hot and
piercing as they were, did not break
through the plaster board wall sep
arating the restaurant from the ice
plant, merely charring the substance
> over, but the water did that in a
hurry. That was very slight injury
to the building, and the plant suf-
fered only by burning out Of 20
horsepower motor, which, however,
may prove on further examination to
be only a partial burning out. Of it
self that would not delay the resump-
ton of ice production By the factory,
but it happened that water was not
vet available for making ice, which
places it still at least AZ hours off.
The meat market escaped wholly
unframed, save for a broken window
pane and a few boards torn out of the
wall on the south side, farthest from
the fire.
Mr.. Simmons states that he will re-
open his restaurant, but at differ
! emit location. Mr.. Hewlett individual
" owns the building. He states that
the damage thereto is about $500.
Chief Fleming claims a great vim
dication for the placing of two tanks
on the mountain northeast Of the bust
ness portion of town, which are sup
piled with water from the United
Eastern mine, with two parallel pipe
lines through Main street, which COM
prise the fire protection system of
Oatman. These pipe lines are entire