Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1922-01-19
FIRE THREATENS
MAIN BUILDING At
COUNTRY CLUB
Continued from page !

her bed room which Is on the sec
ond floor Mt tle southern end OF the
main building. Running TO the win
dow she saw the golf house in flames.
She called her husband and they
club house, cooks. walters helpers
and care takers. They gathered up
all the hand extinguishers they could
find and some OF the men attached n
garden hose used for cleaning pur-
poses about the club and in this man
ner they fought the flames as best
they could,
In the meantime Mrs. Joost had tele-
phoned to Are headquarters and the
call was relayed to Engine Company
No. and Truck Company No. and
all the apparatus of both companies
was sent speeding TO the scene The
/ combination wagon of Engine Com
4 pany No also was ordered out. The
4 firemen were at the country club IN a
/ remarkably short time after the call
was sent in. according to Mrs. Joost
and the other employees, and they were
astonished mt the speed the firemen
had made.
Lack of water hampered the NJ"
lighters. They had TO stretch line
Of hose 1.loo feet long to a hydrant at
Pennsylvania avenue and Tower Hill
road and this was all they could get
| for the service. The golf house was q
seething furnace when they got thers
but they tore down tho lattice work
fence connecting the golf. house and
the main building. which. was then
burning, and devoted their efforts &c
saving the main structure.
The heat was 80 intense the boards
on the end and on the roof were
steaming and tho paint was blisterint
but by keeping water running ovel
the woodwork the flames were pre-
vented from getting a foothold on thu
club house itself. In this manner tn
, building was saved. The golf hous
. was burned TO the ground.
1t was used by wEfrid Reid. tn
, clubs professional, as a store hous
for the Golf sticks. bags. balls, squasl
/, rackets and other supplies OF tn
, members who did not keep sucl
, things in their lockers in the hous
proper He also had In there an cleo
, trlcal machine for cleaning clubs an
equipment for repairing them. A
, these were destroyed. Mr.. Reid is Il
, ! Florida and the exact value OF tn
o stock could not be determined in hi
A absence. q However. Mr.. Shewar
: thought II would be close to $4,000,
= not more. The contents were reall
r which was one story and Of fran
?. construction, about 20 feet square.
= How the fire started is n myster.
l. The cook at the country club and ar
n other employee came home about mid
r night and everything was all rigi
e then and there was no indication of
e fire. They had not retired when III
flames were seen shooting from III
building Officials OF the club ga
today that had there been wiz
from the south nothing, hardly, cou
i. have saved the main building.
" Probably more than 100 members
the club today are without their &c
&c equipment They usually left it
l. Reds care for storing for the whit
y and TO keep II clean and in good ord
VI and while most OF them carried Il
II surance on It some did not.
y There was a coal stove in the smi
40 house for heating purposes and N
u, Steward thought today this may ha
,e become overheated and started a Il
10 which smouldered until It broke o
early this morning. The electric Zig
wiring was new and it is not thong
% there could have been a defect in
II was said there was no other w
the fire could have started than fro
j.. the stove unless someone had brok
al in there for the purpose OF robbie
err anu 'h's - io' eiNe" ii'u0i 'o'is'ooi
:, ton.