Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-20
NEWS BUILDING
Continued from page I


The blaze WINS seen from all parts Of
the city and from the suburbs, making
quite a reflection, and it brought many
people down town notwithstanding the
| early hour at which the fire took place.
AZ the time Of the fire the Hotel Mullin,
| which adjoins the News Building on the
north, was filed with guests, about 50
! being there and all asleep They soon
/ learned Of the fire, and, with tho as
! sistance Of the police and his own force,
Thomas VI. Mullin, the owner, quickly
reused everybody and helped them out
! Of the building. They had 20 get out by
the rear, as the water WAS flooding IN
ut the time, and many were scantily
clad, while nearly every guest had grabbed
/ up as much clothing as they could get
hold Of. There were four women IN the
I party and they did not get hysterlcal.
! Everything was done in an orderly manner
| "rhe police certainly we're on the job"
/ said one Of the guests today. They saw
/ that we we're oil awake and helped US
! get out with the least confusion" Mr..
| Mulln gave great praise to the police
and firemen
The only physical damage sustained by
! the hotel was the puncturing Of the
! south wall in ono place "It was our flTc
/ wall that saved ms, said Mr.. Muliin
/ The place was flooded with water, which
| caused damage to the building, but did
/ not damage the stock in the cellar.
| ROOM RENTERS HAD TO FLEE.
/ While this scene was being enacted in
! the hotel, there was another quite as
/ dramatic IN the =. h O. building, Just
/ below the News office George A. Laws
| occupied rooms on one floor there and
/ William Hagan and his wife had rooms
Z b.I Il IT, fr- EbCfr
! lives and got out scantily clad, but they
/ did get out and were not hurt
! This building sustained considerable
/ physical damage and il will have TO be
t rebuilt m some particulars The only
/ part Of 1t that escaped was the r. Z, q.
/ tailor shop, on the third floor, which was
i not damaged at Ill The News occupied
one Of the upper floors
Mr. Haynes manager Of the Morning
/ News, was one of the earliest arrivals On
i The scene, quickly followed ~ Robert y.
! Kemp, president of the Artisans Bank,
and Robert r. Robinson. president of
he Central Bank while Alfred ID Peoples
was already on the ground, living in his
| building, at 50- Market In fact, every
| body who had any interest there was soon
there and At work.
! Mr.. Peoples said today that the stock
4
| Of several thousand dollars He had paint,
/ oil, hardware and other merchandise there,
and today il was 4 mass of mud Water
! gOtinto the basementof the Artisans Bank,
! finding its wav into the record andslIpply
vault where it soaked some old records
| and damaged some supplies. weak
place was also noticed IN the wall TODAY
| which will have to he strengthened, but
/ business was not nterfercd with Mr..
| Kemp was on hand all day Yesterday and
/ looked after draining the cellar. "a did
| also Robert r. Robinson president Of the
/ Central Bank, who said the damage there
/ was slight, little water having gotten
/ INTO the supply vault.
HAD TO PUMP WATER OUT.
The firemen had the blaze extinguished
! after three hours work, during which
I time a great quantity Of water had been
used. Much OF the water found its way
| into the cellars Of all Of the buildings in
/ the FIRE zone, and through the efforts Of
/ Mr.. Kemp a contract was made with the
| Reliance Fire Co, TO pump this water
/ out, at a cost OF $500 In view Of the
| fact that mud and other things would
| come through the water thus pumped,
| because of the merchandise IN some Of
4 the Gel an, pumping this water out would
i be hard "a an engine, out the Reliance has
a reliable old horse-drawn Silsby engine
which it was willing to use, and which
was used with good effect.
This engine, Incidentally had not been
used since the Baltimore fire, in 1904
/ when 1t pumped 48 hours straight and
threw salt water, being the only engine
!, there able to do this continuously. After
the Baltimore fire the engine was brought
/ home and when the Reliance Co. installed
motor engines it was gwen back sea"
in the engine house at Fourth and Lom-
bard street but it has been kept in good
/ shape as was demonstrated yesterday,
when it pumped for several hours without
break completing the Job. It was
operated yesterday by John Mckinley,
, company foreman, and Lewis Cash.
After working desperately to save the
News Building the tiremen eventually
realized that it was doomed and began
strenuous efforts 10 save the adjoining
+ properties and prevented the loss OF the
/ entire block
The Postal Telegraph Co, which oc-
cupied part Of the first floor of the build
ing. sustained loss estimated at 81 900,
/ and the p Il O. clothing store, adjoining
the News Building, was damaged to the
extent of several thousand dollars, princi-
/ pally by water.
i Manager William W. Anderson of the
/ Postal Telegraph Company says number
/ Of articles Of furniture and a complete
switchboard panel were SO badly damaged
! that they are a total loss.
The News Co. had particularly
valuable plant, comprising a modern
i Goss press, complete Goss stereotyping
outfit, seven linotypes and other Incl
dental equipment, including chaSes, type,
cases, galleys, etc, the value of which
has increased to considerable degree
/ In the past few years. 1t is proposed TO
gat similar plant temporarily until
permanent new building viii be provided,
but where the temporary plant will be
located the management does not vet
/ know.
While number of files were burned
+ duplicate sets, except for the past three
! months, are intact, having been preserved
at the Delaware Bank