Show BLAZE AT RICHFIELD New llormon Tabernacle Totally Destroyed Last Night LOSS REACHES 4209 ENTIRE BUSINESS SECTION NARROWLY NAR-ROWLY ESCAPED Tabernacle Was Just Nearing Com pletio and There Was Not a Dollar of Insurance Believed That It Was Started By An Enemy En-emy of the Contractor Special to The Herald Richfield Oct 4The Mormon tabernacle tab-ernacle in this citynow is 3 mass of I I I I smoking embers A 615 the fire was 1 i first seen and 3t this Lime 830 noth I S ing is left of it but a mass of burning I timbers and the bare naked walls The I I entire loss on the building is more than I 42000 with not one cent of insurance insur-ance S The cause of the fire is not known I but It is thought that it is spite work on the part of some villain who is f trying to make himself even with Contractor I I Con-tractor J H Bowman I At 615 this evening Dwight Me teer The Herald correspondent in this II city was passing the tabernacle when he noticed what he thought to be ablaze I a-blaze He started an investigation I and the alarm was at once sounded The fire engine was taken to the scene I but while this was being done not takIng tak-Ing more than three minutes as the fire house is on the same block as the I tabernacle the fire bad gained such headway that the only thing that could I be done was to save what timber was piled round the building and save the I adjoining buildings A terrible wind from the southwest was blowing and eight minutes from the time the fire was first seen the town was a mass of flames sparks and burning shingles are reported to have been blown for ten blocks and fully 30 corrals and haystacks were set on fire in the northeast corner of town but no serious loss is reported except I from water The outside of the building both carpenter car-penter and mason work was completed complet-ed OIuf Lund had the contract to do All the plastering in the building and tomorrow night that work would have been completed The bUilding throughout I through-out was wired for electricity The car I I penters commenced on yesterday to lay the flooring and in fact the buildIng build-Ing was to be turned over from the contrnctor to the people by the 15th of next month If the walls are too badly bad-ly l injured from the heat the cost to replace them is estimated at 3000 The carpenter work Ia estimated at 12000 J H Eversoll a local Insurance agent had submitted his figures to the committee insuring the building for 10000 The committee had decided today to-day and Mr Eversoll was instructed to write them their polIcy tonight It cannot at this early date be ascertained ascer-tained who will have to stand the loss of the building but It is most generally supposed that the contractor will have to stand it The origin of the fire is a mystery The building is plastered all but a small place along one side wl No one could have gaIned an entrance to the original start ng place except by going to the top of the tower and from there over the ceiling to the extreme corner of the buUding None of the workmen had been in that place for over four weeks there was no chanGe for spontaneous combustion and therefore it seems probable that some villain who had some feeling against the contractor started it Had the wind been straight from the south all of the business houses would have gone The people have paid for I this building with the greatest diffi citlty and now with this misfortune staring them in the face it Is not known when the building will be finished I fin-ished The fire has given a selback to I this city equal to five years as the tabernacle tab-ernacle was the pride of the whole southern country S |