Martinsburg journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1920-1977, 1922-07-28
LOUIS lIpSIC STORE AND STOCK ARE
Quilted WITH BOTH COMPLETE LOSSES;
THOMPSON AND THOMPSON STOCK INJURED
Origin Of Early Morning Blaze Undetermined Had Gained
Considerable HeadWay Before Reported-Firemen
DO Good Warehouses; Insured.

An early morning conflagration
took an estimated 500. o00-damage
toll in the business district this
morning leaving q trail of burned
buildings and mems and women's
stock making the most serious fire
loss since the burning of tho Central
Opera House more than year ago.
THE Lswers women's readytto.
wear store, owned by Louis Lipsic,
is n heap of smoudering ashes;
nothing but the front and front side
walls remained after the disaster.
and inside the stock. whose value
could not be asCertained with GER
tainty this morning because of the
absence of Mr.. Lipsic from the city
on a trip with some friends, lay In
heaps OF hlackened debris. Nothing
It was thought. could be reclaimed
from the stock. The rear building,
built few years ago by Mr.. Lip.
sic to permit Of the enlargement
of his business, and constructed of
frame with a metal covering. was
burned to the ground with all the
contents.
The Lipsic building was the most
seriously damaged structure, but
the mems roadyIto-wear stock OF
Thompson and Thompson, In the
building adjoining owned by Mrs
Elizabeth Esser, was Quilted by wa,
ter and smoke. Water and smoke
also damaged some of the fixtures
and stock in Workings Drug Store
and the barber shop OF G.. Leslie
! Hollis. The rear wall of the rear
building of the Schneider bakery on
West Martin street was scorched
but did not burn through.
Covered BY insurance.
| The estimated damages to build
ings and stocks was put at 100000
or more this morning. The Lipsic
buildings. front and back. were val
ued at $4,000. partly covered by in
surance. The Lipsic stock and Ak
lures, in the absence Of an official
estimate by the proprietor, was es
timated at $4,000, also partly GOV
cred by Insurance The Thompson
and Thompson store damage was
put Mt $4,000, fully covered by in
surance. The Worthing and Holli;
damages were mparatively small
and covered by insurance. The dam
age TO the Esser building, in which
Thompson g. Thompson's store and
the Hollis barber shop were located
tyas put at $4,000, covered by insur-
ance. the losses in these instances
being confined largely to damages
] l. Il trrG yn RI
water and smoke.
The origin OF the fire is undeter
mined The electric light company
this morning reported all Of its
fuses on circuits entering the Lip
sic building, in which the blaze ap'
parently started and to which the
actual flames were largely confined
were intact, indicating that crossed
wires could not have started it be
cause a short circuit would have
| blown fuse. A kitchen in the rear
Of the American Restaurant was
not damaged and the Schneider
Bakery rear buildings were not ma
terially scorched. The fire, it ia be
lieVed, started somewhere between
the front and rear buildings of the
Lipsic group from some unknown
cause and it had made considerable
Roadway within the building before
it was noticed and reported.
Have Marrow Escape.
Mrs. Louis Lipsic, sleeping with
their little daughter, Bernice, in one
Of the more rear rooms, dreamed
she said this morning. that there
was a fire about her and awakened
with a feeling OF suffocation. She
called TO Miss Sarah Lipsic who
was sleeping with her mother, Mrs.
r. Lipsic, in a nearby room, and re-
ported her alarm Miss Lipsic i'm
mediately investigated and salts
fed herself that there was fire close
and then FASTENED to the street
whore she called IN the American
Restaurant chef that there was FIRE
some where. and then fastened back
to the house TO assist in getting her
mother, Mrs. Lipsic and little child
cut. Evidently about the same time
Edward Bradford North Maple ave.
nue., happening to come from East
Martin street between 4.30 and a.
H. saw LHS 50lDhFs anu lditI tUS
flames, bursting from a room on
the second floor in the rear Of the
building. He rushed upstairs to
alarm the family found them awake
and thea hurried towards the fire
house to give the alarm. ON the
WY he met Of1cer John Bowers
and asked him to sound the siren
while he called the fire department.
An alarm was also turned in from
the restaurant by telephone.
The building was seething fur
mace in the rear when the fremen
reached the scene, the flames shoot
ing out of the roof Of the high one
story building in the rear with the
smoke and being visible all over tho
city. the fremen found the blaze
a difficult one to fight because it
was contained within the metalcov-
cred frame building; and the flames
which spread 70 Tho adjoining build
ing ate their way under metal roofs
and We're also difhcult TO combat.
They found it necessary to use the
axes often to cut holes for the play
of the water
Save Other Buildings
The work Of the firemen was eff
fective, however, and il was only
we'll directed fre-fghting that saw