Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-03-09
City Sustains 100000 Loss In
Disastrous Blaze Gets Hand
some Building Early
Wednesday

ond Street was destroyed by fire
which was discovered about hall
past lour o'clock Wednesday
morning. The magnificent struc-
ture, comprising the main build
ing erected in 1894 and the large
annex containing class rooms
and the spacious auditorium built
in 1910, were guttcd completely.
-Four lines OF hoses played by the
city tircmcn Tor hours were un-
able to make the slightest i'm
PRECISION upon the con1agration,
which burned itself out. y driz-
zling rain, which had been falling
nearly all night, had no effect up
on the power OF the blaze, it ap-
pcared.
The loss is estimated by school
board officials at S1OO,COO, with
possibly insurance to the amount
OF $4,000.
School officials all think that
the fire caught in the furnace
room. ]. {. Bowman. who was
one of the first on the scene, says
the fire was burning brightly be-
low stairs, and could be seen thru
nearly all of the cellar windows
when he reached it and with 9TH
crs attempted to check it. Mrs.
&. II. Pigg, living nearby on Sec
ond street. say the blaze when
she arose carly, and quickly turn
cd in the alarm.
The fire department respond
cd quickly and for a time it was
thought that the blaze would
quickly yield to their efforts.
. However, it was soon discovered
that practically the whole of the
flooring and the foundation work
ON the first floor that was COM
buStiblc, was on fire, and had been
burning for some time The
blaze had plainly obtained great
Roadway and had undoubtedly
been buring for hours. unseen,
before it made its presence felt,
and was observed by early riscr..
After fighting the big blaze in
the main tWo-story brick build
ing Tor an hour or So and then
finding that it was impossible to
check it there the iircmcn turned
their attention to the annex in the
rear, Ahich contained the audi
toritIm. BY this time. however.
the blaze had eaten its way un-
der the roofing and when Fire
Chief Ben Daughcrty attempted
To force his way up inside the an
mex, he and his men were driven
back by the heavy smoke, in
which NO one could live. School
board officials sought to have the
fIrcmcn take a hose to the top Of
the annex from the rear and fight
the advancing flames from above.
This, done in time. might have
saved the annex, they thought.
But ladder sufficiently long
could not be found to put a man
ON top of the annex from the rear.
and with ingress by way of the
stairs inside cut off later bv the
heavy smoke, all chance OF saving
the new annex went glimmcring.
and spectators had to stand by
and see it guttcd also.
There seemed to be no indiCa-
ton Of inCendiarism in connec-
tion with the fire. Several men
who got there at the very first
were careful to give close scrut-
my to the surroundings. Paper
LETT in front OF the big furnace
door or something like that may
have given the blaze its incipien-
Cy, school officials said. Jasper
Lane. young man who has been
doing janitor work, and taking
care of the furnace since last Sat
urday, had not yet come to work.
He says he left the furnace in
good condition when he banked it
for the night on Tuesday evening
after close of school. Sam Jones.
who has been janitor at Caldwell
school for the past Is or 20 years,
has not been at work for a couple
of weeks. He fell and badly
sprained limb and has been laid
up. He had another substitute on
duty for him for week or so,
but this man left and Jasper Lane
has been looking after the furnace
and janitor duties since then.
School officials say that they
will be surprised if the loss does
not reach 100000. The main
building. which was built in 1894,
cost about $45, 900 at that time,
which builders say would mean