Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1919-07-09
FIRE SWEEPS Ware.
HOUSE DISTRICT
VAST QUANTITIES OF MERCHAN'
Disc AND MANY BUILDINGS
ARE CONSUMED BY FLAMES.
ORIGIN OF FIRE IS UNKNOWN

Firemen Worked Hard Against Great
Odds in Part Of City With Poor
Fire Protection.
Fire, the origin Of which so Tar has
not been determined, swept over the
ware house district on lower Main
street at an early hour Tuesday morn
ing. and destroyed large quantities OF
merchandise, and completely destroy
ed numerous warehouses belonging to
merchants, automobile dealers and
coal dealers. The fire alarm was turn
ed in at 1890, and before the fire de-
partment could get its equipment on
the ground one or two of the ware
houses were all in flames. The south
east wind famed the flames until the
entire set of warehouses next to the
Manchester & Oneida Railway Com
pany's tracks were soon reduced to
ashes Two streams OF water were at
once turned on the flaming buildings,
but this made little impression on the
fire. The firemen then turned their
attention to saving the Eclipse Lum-
ber company's yard, and. If possible,
keep the flames from working their
way to the Standard Oil Company, and
the Leader and Iowa Oil C0mpany's
large oil tanks, at either end OF the
district that was being destroyed. Ow-
ing to the condition of the boilers at
the pumping station. Engineer Victor
Collard was unable to furnish the
proper water pressure, and for long
time the firemen were unable to throw
stream of water over the coal sheds.
Firemen were Obliged to carry the
hose almost to the very edge Of the
J blazing ruins in order to get water on
the fire. When 1t is known that large
quantities of oil were stored in the
ware house occupied by ]. NJ. Jones &
Sons, our people will appreciate the
chances the fire men took in fighting
a fire which threatened for time to
wipe ont the entire business section
along West Main street.
At this time It is impossible to give
even an approximate estimate OF the
loss that Manchester business men
have sustained in Tuesday mornings
fre It is safe to say, however. that
1t will mount into many thousands OF
dollars, when the Anal figures are
counted up.
J. NJ. Jones & Sons occupied the d.
#. Young, ware house, and had in it
two Fordson tractors, four gang plows
one double disc, about twenty-five
barrels Of lubricating oils, automo-
bile accessories, and all Of the win
dow and door frames for. their new
home which Is now in process Of err
ection.. The firm estimates its loss
at about $500, and carried no insur-
ance on the stock. Mr.. Young, the
owner of the building, valued the
building at $500, with about one-half
that amount in insurance. Burdette
. Young suffered the loss Of thresh-
ing machine which stood in the street
next to the Young warehouse.
Hutchinson & Atwater, hardware
dealers, occupied one OF the ware
houses that was destroyed. In their
building they had stored furnaces,
bath room fixtures, fence material,
plumbing material, and an endless
amount of other merchandise, all OF
which was completely destroyed.
Their4loss is partly covered by insur-
ance.
Stearns & Mccormick were perhaps
hit the hardest by the fire. The firm
had two warehouses, one south OF the
M. & O. tracks, and one just north OF
the side track. In the north house the
firm had large stocks of furniture,
stoves, nails, hay rope, and great
quantities of stove pipes and elbows
and other merchandise. In the build
ing south of the tracks large quanti-
ties of -four, sugar, tea, coffee. nails
and thousand and one articles hand
led by the firm, were stored. In addi-
tion to having the two ware houses
and their contents destroyed, they al
so had a part of car load Of -four on
the tracks, just north Of their big
ware house, and this was also de-
stroyed.
The coal sheds belonging to Robert
Harris were practically destroyed. Mr..
Harris is rather fortunate that he had
practically no coal in the sheds. Dur
ing the past few months Mr.. Harris
had arranged his coal shipments so
that as fast as a car of coal arrived
he would deliver it directly to his GUS
toners, instead of storing it in the
sheds. The Fred johnson coal sheds
were also partly destroyed, and large
quantities of coal were ruined.
The Manchester & Oneida Railway
company came in for generous share
of the aggregate loss. The companys
tool house, together with all of its
tools and handcar were completely
destroyed. The rails on the siding in
front Of the warehouses were twisted
into all sorts of shapes by the in
tense heat. The company's heaviest
loss consists in having several thousI;
and dollars worth of ties and fence
posts burned. 1t will be several days
before even an estimate can be given
as to the losses sustained by Hutchin-
son & Atwater, Stearns & Mccormick,
Fred Johnson, and the Manchester &