Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-30
FURNITURE BLAZE
LOSSES EXPECTED
TO REACH S15O,0))
Two Firemen Slightly Injured
as Fire Destroys Three
Story Warehouse.
HOSPITAL is ENVELOPED
IN BELLOWS OF SMOKE
Officials of Company Inclined to
Blame Spontaneous Combus-
ton as Cause.

Losses expected to approximate
$150,000 were being checked in three
quarters today TO determine the dam
age wrought by five-alarm fire, which
late yesterday swept the Hub Furniture
Co. warehouse, at North Capitol and
M streets, and resulted in slight in
juries to two firemen.
Discovered at S O'Clock, the flames
quickly transformed the three-story
ridge-roofed brick structure into vir-
tual volcanic crater, which helched
fire, smoke and. gas high above the
heads of the crowd of several thousand
persons who gathered almost instantly
TO witness the spectacle.
AS the erratlc breeze twisted the
smoke pillows into various courses,
Sibley Hospital, located just across
North Capitol street from the ware
house, became enveloped in the chok-
ing clouds. As some of the smoke
seeped into the hospital corridors,
nurses went smiling from room to room
in the front of the institution assur-
ing patients that the danger was well
removed from them. In many in
stances, the nurses propped their pa
tients up in bed so that they could
better witness the scene of flre-f1ghting,
while in others the patients actually
were wheeled to vantage points.
Two Firemen Treated.
Meanwhile Sibley Hospitals emergen-
cy room was held in waiting to receive
any injured persons. Isaac Kepler and
Elmer F. Stein, both members of En-
CINE Co. No. IA, were the only two
casualties admitted and, after receiv-
ing first aid treatment for minor lac
eratlonS suffered when a glass window
sash burst from the heat above their
heads, they returned to the fire.
Two other firemen whose identity
was not established, escaped from the
second floor of the warehouse by ladders
run up hastily to windows for them aft
er flames apparently had cut off their
retreat by the same route over which
they entered the building.
Residents of the Montgomery Apart
ments, separated from the warehouse
by only narrow alleE hung in their
windows or crowded to the roof of their
building to witness the flames. SINH
larry, the personnel of the Chesapeake
g. Potomac Telephone Co. Building, at
I'LL North Capitol street and located
across Pierce. street from the burned
structure, watched from their open
windows until the shifting pillows of
smoke forced them to close the portals.
This structure, although never in dam
ger from the flames, houses the auto
mobile plant of the telephone concern
in which the special truck bodies are
manufactured, and in which are stored
all of the telephone equipment used by
the Chesapeake g. Potomac Telephone
companies of Maryland, Virginia
West Virginia and the District of CO.
lumbia.
Blame Internal Combustion.
While the cause of the fire may
never be known, officials of the COM
pany are inclined to blame internal
combustion. The warehouse was lit
orally packed with furniture of all sorts
and provided highly fammable fuel for
the flames, which, it is feared, de-
stroyed virtually every trace of evil
dence which might have indicated the
origin.
Oficials of the Hub Furniture Co..
which occupied one half of the block
long structure. and the National Furni-
ture Co. and the Julius Lansburgh Fur
niture Co, which jointly occupy the
other half of the ware house, were
checking their losses today. All of the
fire damage was suffered by the Hub
concern, while the National Co. received
water damage to some of its stock. The
Lansburgh Co. announced today that its
total loss probably would not exceed
$4,000, although this figure had not
bSCl
When first discovered, the flames were
roaring viciously from a point some
where in the middle of the structure
toward the southern end, sweeping vir-
tuaIy everything before them in a
whitening rush. AS the heat increased
the sheet metal roofing plates curled
and the flames pierced through to raise
brilliant geysers plumed with smoke
pillows 100 feet into the air. Within
half an hour the roof appeared to wave
along its ridge and the next moment
1t swept softly, life so much tin foil,
into the raging flames, which burst anew
into the air.
Fire Confined to One Wing.
While firemen battled doggedly
against the flames employees of the
National Furniture Co.'S warehouse and
the Julius Lansburgh Co.'s warehouse,
in an adjoining wing of the same big
structure, labored frantically to haul
their stored furniture as far as possible
from the brick and cement fire wall
which separated their quarters from the
raging inferno. Through the efforts of
the flrefighters the flames which nib
bled at the roof of the adjoining wing
were defeated and driven back to the
holocaust from which they swept, and
while no fire damage was suffered by
either the National or the Lansburgh
concern, their stocks were threatened
for short time by water damage
The fire was discovered at approx
mately the same time from several
quarters outside the building. At least
three names were taken of persons who
first" saw the fire. F. H. Middledorf
of $40 Taylor street, cut his hand
slightly when he smashed the fire
alarm box glass to turn in an alarm
at 5:04 o'clock. w. PETE an employee
of the Western Electric Co., which is
quartered in the Chesapeake g. Potomac
Telephone Co.'S plant warehouse at
I'LL North Capitol street, and Luther
Bailey, connected with the Texaco fill
ing station adjoining the burned ware
house at North Capitol and Pierce
streets, also reported the fire.
At 6:15 O'Clock, when the flames
first appeared to be definitely under
control, not stick of furniture in the
Hub section Of the warehouse had
escaped serious damage. Most of the
stock was destroyed, but that which
was not burned was soaked with water.
long after the flames seemed ex-
finguished, firemen continued to play
streams into the debris to prevent a
new outbreak amid the smouldering
mass.