THE EMPIRE MILL Burned to the Ground Loss About 23000 The Empire grist mill situated about a mile beyond the Eagle Gate up City Creek burned on Tuesday afternoon About 3 oclock Mr Sudbury the miller was engaged with some gentlemen in examining a new washing machine and haying hay-ing tested the article started from the mill to Mr Sudburys house about the third of a large block below the mill While on their way one of the gentlemen gen-tlemen turned and saw smoke issuing from the vicinity of the smut bin Mr Sudburys attention was called to it and the whole party returned to the mill with all possible speed It was soon learned that the fire was in the smut bin and every exertion was made by pouring on water to extinguish the blaze but to no purpose The fire department was notified of the matter mat-ter and the brigade with the necessary apparatus reached the spot as speedily as could be done The fire however had gained rapid headway and secured such a hold upon the mill that no human power available could extinguish it while there remained anything that it could feed upon 11 a short time only a few charred timbers remained the whole building having been consumed con-sumed to the rockwork The mill was fitted up in first class style the machinery being very good this is also destroyed It is estimated the loss on the mill and machinery will reach 15000 there being no insurance whatever Besides this a large quantity of wheat was in the mill and comparatively com-paratively nothing was saved Of the wheat quite a large portion was destroyed with fire while upwards of 3000 bushels floated down City Creek The wheat storage bin was placed over the waste water flow and when the flooring was burned out the wheat all ran down into the outlet and was washed into City creek The wheat thus destroyed by fire and water was valued at 58000 thus making a total loss of 23000 all of which is a dead loss because there was no insurance Mr Sudbury has no idea how the fire occurred The idea of spontaneous spontane-ous combustion ho does not entertain enter-tain He says the smut bin was cleaned out very recently there was but a small accumulation of smut and there had been no rain since the bin was cleaned out hence there was nothing which could produce heat and induce spontaneous spon-taneous combustion The mill is quite an old structure though its appointments were all new It was built in 1SG1 or 1SG2 It is not known whether it will be replaced