The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-05-23

supplies are stored, and at the same
time six residences in West End were
burning, when the alarm came in from
the Decatur street box. AS many as
could be spared were sent to this see
ton, but it is doubtful if the entire
department could have checked the
flames that, driven by high wind,
fairly ate up the small houses, on
which rain had not fallen in MANY
days.
Household Goods Piled Up.
Vagaries of the wind caused great
alarm in sections that afterwards
proved safe and tonight for blocks on
all sides of the area of destruction
household goods were piled in every
conceivable place. These were guard
ed in most cases by soldiers who were
also pressed into all kinds of work.
Several hundred buckets were rush
td to Ponce de Leon avenue when the
night conferred there. Each soldier
was supplied with one and as a tiny
olaZo started on q roof these men
| WIZ iu9Hcu " IL. IL was by such
detailed methods as these that the
blaze was checked at the avenue for
so long time. The presence of the
soldiers directing traffic, guarding
household goods and keeping people
from the danger zone gave almost
the appearance of martial law. AS
Tar as has been reported tonight, good
order was maintained everywhere and
there were no attempts at looting.
In statement to the Associated
Press tonight Mayor Asa G. Gambler
stated that he had fully investigated
the reports that the fire was of an in
cendiary origin.
There is nothing whatever to sup
port that theory" Mayor Gambler
said.
The fact that three fires were
burning at practically the same time,
it is believed lent strength to the in
cendlarlsm reports.
Where Blaze Started.
The blaze started in the Skinner
Storage Company's plant, which is al
most surrounded by many small frame
houses
When the flames had jumped across
Edgewood avenue and were being
driven with incredible rapidty toward
the better sections of the city gen
eral call for aid went out. Fire de-
partmcnts at Chattanooga, Mac on,
Augusta, Newman, Georgia, Marietta,
Ca, and Griffin, Ga, were asked to
send aid. Fort Mcpherson was called
upon for all the men that could be
spared, business houses were asked to
send trucks to haul extra hose and
any other supplies and private auto
mobiles were offered by the scores.
The $500 men in the officers re-
serve corps and most Of the members
OF the Fifth Georgia guardsmen were
sent in from the fort and entered into
the work Justify, as many of them
were working to save their own homes
or the dwellings, of relatives. News
paper men sent into the area tclc-
phoned along with other reports that
their own homes in many instances
had been destroyed.
approximately scvcnty-fvc blocks
were devastated, but the area cannot
be correctly estimated by blocks, as
after the fight at Ponce de Leon ave-
nue. the flames skirtcd that thorough
fare on the south side of the street
for some distance.
OFF 'ois tonight would not hazard
guess at the monetary loss. The
destroyed buildings ranged all the
way from shacks occupied by negroes
to homes up to $4,000 or $4,000. Some
estimates were between $2,OOO,0OO
or $3,000,000, but they were neither
from sources nor based on calculations
to give them weight
Starting Point.
! The fire started in the Skinner Sto-
rage and Warehouse Plant near De-
catur street, just cas- of Fort street,
from a cause not determined tonight.
1t quickly spread to the small houses
nearby, which were dry from lack of
rain, and driven by high wind,
started to rapidly eat it's way north
and northeastward. Around the flame
swept area tonight, with its streets
Uttered with broken wires, splintcrs
from acres Of dynamited homes and
all the odds and ends of furniture and
clothing that was gathered in an in