Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-01

was at the City garage, which ex-
tends along River street. opposite
the Public Library, from Walnut to
strawberry street, early in the morn
ing of March 25. Seventy-five thou
sand dollars damage was caused.
c. x. Wolfe is proprietor of the gar
age, and his loss was heavy. Fff-
teen new Buick machines, owned by
George B. Zech, the local Buick
dealer, were destroyed besides sixty
other machines stored in the build
ing. The office of the Remington
Typewriter Company, in the first
floor, also sustained heavy damage.
Paul Guyer, a fireman, belonging to
the Royal Fire Company. was in
jured while fighting the flames. The
building belonged to the Valley
Traction Company and Is rebuilt.
More than s3,500 was lost in a
blaze which started in an oil stor-
age tank. IN which is stored the oil
feeding the open hearths, at the
Central Iron and Steel Company. A
spark from n passing locomotive fell
into shallow reservoir under the
tank, igniting the oil that had drip
ped there, and the heat caused the
$4,000 gallons of oil in the tank to
flame with n sudden blast. which
brought hundreds to the scene.
Brakeman Is Killed
When a draft of two freight cars.
about 1880 o'clock in the morning
of August 8, were switched into
three oil cars on the SIX hump in
the Maclay street yards of the Penn
sylvania railroad, the plugs from the
oil cars were knocked loose, and the
naphtha which spurted out was ig-
l.. l.
Albert Burkholder. 270 PETER street,
the brakeman. who was riding the
draft of freight cars. The flames
spread to other freight cars stand
ing by, and the loss was consider
able. Burkholder's clothes were
saturated with the blazing naphtha
and he died a few days later in the
Harrisburg Hospital.
The next person who fell a vic
tim to fire in Harrisburg during 1918
lost her life in the fire which broke
out in the rear of the cellar of Hor-
ace NJ. Witman's home at 2101
North Second street September 10,
spread UP the back stairs and de-
stroyed the rear of the house. Mrs
Laura Lockhart, the maid, who was
sleeping in the rear room on the
the third floor, was smothered to
death as she wakened from her
sleep. The remaining four occu-
pants of the house, Mr.. Whitman and
his three children, were saved only
through the heroic efforts of Leo,
Ralph and Frank Harris. who were
staying with their mother next door,
and who brought ladder in the
nick of time and rescued the inn
periled family from their precarious
iao ri
dollars was the property loss.
OIL Reservoir Blazes
The Harrisburg Pipe and Pipe
Bending Company was the scene of
another expensive fire September 10,
when the oil in a reservoir was ig-
nited, and 10000 gallons of quench-
ing oil, valued at $4,000, went up
in flames. The fire was started when
workmen giving hot steel the
quenching oil treatment to cool and
draw 1t, fed the steel too fast.
The last fire OF considerable pro-
portions occurred at the confection-
cry and tobacco warehouse of Smith
and Keffer, at All South Cameron
street, December 81, where a fire Of
inexplicable origin swept the rear of
the first floor and caused $4,000 dam
age to the stock and building. A sec
ond fire was caused three days later,
when a fuse blew out In the eleva-
tor mechanism, but little damage re-
suited.
With the exception of the small
Keffer blaze, the last three months
have been featured by an epidemic
of false alarms and Insignificant
blazes which caused little damage,
but kept the fire companies busy.
A complete resume of the fires
which occurred during 1918. as tab
ulated by Chief Kinder, follows:
january
Jan. 1. 1905 North Seventh. dam
age, $40; Jan. 2, Tenth and Herr
streets, Pipe Bending Company,
$210. Jan. s, 1903 Elm, $50; Jan.
8. 3S Balm, no damage; Jan. 8, 1910
Mulberry. s25; Jan. IL. Z North
Third. damage slight; Jan. Is. 50
North Seventeenth, damage 5000;
Jan. 81, 404-406 Verbeke, s1,750;
Jan. %, 135-137 Linden, $1,000; Jan.
%, 1409-1411 Marion. $500.
February
Feb. 2, 1901 North Sixth, $3.50;
Feb. 8. 1851 North Sixth, $4,000; Feb.
IL, 316 Herr, damage slight; Feb. 13.
false alarm; Feb. IA, Eighteenth and
Derry. $500. Feb. Is, Lemoyne, Hope
Fire Co. extinguished $4,000 fire at
Frank Miller's butcher shop. Feb. IS,
1907 North Fourth, slight; Feb. %,
1131 Mulberry, $40; Feb. %, false
alarm turned in after wreck at Phil
adelphia and Reading passenger sta
tion; Feb. 23, Twelfth and Dock,
$500; Feb. "a, 1907 North Third,
500.
March
March 6, Sixth and Pear, slight;
March IL, Senate Hotel, $4,000;
March 13, false alarm, slight: March
is, Senate Hotel. slight: March /,
false alarm, slight; March 10, 629
Boas, slight; March 20, State and
Cowden, slight; March 22, Nine
teenth and Swatara. 5000; March 20,
Twenty-sixth and Woodlawn, $1,700.
March %, false alarm. March 23,
1910 North Third, $3.50; March 25,
1917 North Cameron, $1,000; March
27, Walnut and River, $4,000.
April
April l, 912 Hemlock, $4,000;
April 6, 1876 North Sixth, slight;
April Z, 421 Market, slight; April
10, 1902 North Third, slight; April
II, 1885 North Sixth, slight; April
20, 10 South Fourth. $500; April 20,
112 Ann. $500; April 20. IL North
Fourth. slight; April &c, 62S Hamil-
ton, slight: April 81, Nineteenth and
Derry. slight; April 20, false alarm.
May
May z. false alarm; May 7, 1892
Wallace, $40. May s, Central Iron
and Steel Co.. $4,000. May 10, 325-
327 Verbeke, $3.50; May IA, false
alarm: May 22, 1929 Fox, $40; MAY
22, 211 Verbeke, $50; MAY 81. 587