Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-03-30
LOEBER WORKS ON
JEFFERSON STREET
WRECKED BY FIRE
As Plant Was Idle Yesterday,
Cause of Blaze is Not
Known.
DAMAGE is EXTENSIVE

The picking and preserving establish
mcnt of G. Il. Iocber 4 Son, at 5ii-3It
jefferson street, near Sixth was totally
destroyed. with its contents, by ilrr
of undetermined origin, which was ilrsi
seen about $50 this morning aud burned
lercely for over an hour.
II was a matter Of good fortune that
here was little or no wind, otherwise
the surrounding properties would most
certainly have been swept away, IN pace
of being only slightly damaged rs
was, the walls of the four-storv brick
building acted as n chimney. and the con
tents were consumed rs IN furnace
The basement of the structure was
used as n boileroom and for storage plr.
poses the ground floor for storing ahd
shipping finished goods, the second foor
for the preserving and picking depar'
mcnt. including the steam-lacketed kc'
ties. che third floor for the noodle max
lnr and driving department, with imported
machines for rolling and cutting and the
fourth floor was used as a lott toI storage
Only the first story walls and part
of the second arc now standing. eNe'p'
chimney on the north party wall, whi'h
is IN an apparently totterlng CONDITION
and will probably have 10 he pulled
down for safety The roof fell IN n an
early stage Of thc fire and The front wall
m falling nearly tilted tho roadway
The origin Of tho firc Is a mystery, he
cause there was no work done IN the place
YESTERDAY The foreman, with . repre-
sentative of the liazcl- Villas Glass 20
of New York City. made m inspection
during the dav Of the topping ma
chimes. furnished hv this company, which
put the metallic tops on the containers ot
L., = - oVeI found thnm
IN good shape and ready for the coming
season which will bcgin in \ month or
six weeks There were no Indications
AZ that time of ANYTHING out Of tho way
While the exact loss IS not known. ~
-urance of about $4,000 on stock and
machinery was IN force, being placed with
IIightield 4 Go and GilpIn. Van Trump n
Montgomery, and by them distributed
among several companies The stock
on hand was smaller than II would have
been later IN the year, when active
operations were under way
Mr. Loeber anticipates no delay m
replacing the machinery used in canning.
picking and preserving, IN ample time
For thls wears work, but is not So certain
as 10 the machinery needed for noodles,
the outfit DESTROYED having been brought.
some wears since, from Stuttgart He Is
also undecided as To plans for rebuild
ng on the same site. as there Is ample room
FOR expansion in connection with the
packing plant IT 236 East Liberty street
The sly families who occupied the
Rosallnd apartment house at SIS lcf-
ferson street sought safety in hurried
flight, taking such articles as were handy
along with them BEYOND charrcd win
dow frames and colnice and general
smoking out. ne great damage was done
Q tho building and contenS
The RosaIind Apartments are separated
from the destroyed building only by a
small allev about two feet wide. and the
blaze started to burn tho north corniCe
Of these apartments. The occupants Of
the apartments are: AlphonsO W B0gIa,
Thomas Dale, George III TAYLOR, Harry
r kclleher. William " Jcffors and
Groome T.. Marcus, with their families
The apartment Of Thomas Dale was the
nearest to the fire and II was damaged TO
some extent. The occupants were aroused
by the FIRE and were ready to move their
belongings at minute S notice, but the
fircmen kept the blaze confined to tho
Loeber building and they didn't have TO
move While there was some appre-
hension. nobody was hurt
The Loeber residence fronting on
Sixth street and adjoining tho factory
on the rear, also suffered slightly from
scorchlng and smoke
Mrs. Mcclure living at 513 jefferson
street, made hot coffee and distributed it
among the firemcn, who were very apprc-
Ciative OF the consideration shown tn III.
FRICTION AMONG TNE FIREME>
While the firemen did splendid work in
fighting the fire, preventing 1t spreading
i.cx-,,,4 *b., r.av varhtrb n C4 uvfrtA
though ther. were numerous difficulties
that had to be overcome, there was a bit
of friction which was noticed by some of
the onlookers
As flames were shooting from all three
floors of the building as we'll as from the
roof. two or three of the cnglp- companies
Wcrc invited to run a hose up the aerial
ladder of the Delaware truck company
but none did IT. Whether they considered
II unnecessary is not known, but some of
the spectators believed that If would have
been advantageous to have had at least
one stream from the ladder
we are done inviting othe<r companies
% make this use of our adder, said an
officer OF the Delaware Co. today. Here
after we will take the truck to the fire.
but If the other companies want to use
1t they will have 10 ask us: we viii not
ask them
FIRE IL DWELLING
fire ot undetermined origin broke out
asst night shortly after E 30 q clock on the
third floor Of the house No. 1916 Walnut
street, occupied by Isaac Wilson, COL
ored, and family. An alarm was sent IN
from box No. 6. Tenth and Walnut streets
and the district fire companies arrived
upon the scene and soon extingllished
the blaze, with the use Of chemical
streams. The damage amounted to about
s1O0 Fire Chief Golden. who maae an
Investigation, stated that he was al a
loss to know what caused the ire.