Show I DISASTROUS FIRE THE MOIiMOX TABEUNACM3 AT IIRIGHA3I CITY DESTROYED I Was Valued at TwentyFive Thousand Dollars and Vas Uninsured Unin-sured Dlost Disastrous Conflagration Conflag-ration in the History of the Place BRIGHAM CITY Feb 9Brighams splendid tabernacle now stands 0 ghastly mass of ruins I was completely com-pletely destroyed this afternoon by fire It is the worst conflagration in the history of the city I was valued at 25000 and the worst feature of all there was no insurance on the building build-ing or contents An 5800 pipe organ silver sacrament service books etc all were destroyed Only a few benches and chairs were saved The fire started start-ed by poor heaters in the basement At about 130 oclock John Baird and Lawrence Martinsen two young men of this city went into the building They noticed that small clouds of smoke were issuing from the furnace in the basement The boys rushed down town and gave the alarm In the I meantime the first among the churchgoers church-goers began to arrive expecting to attend at-tend the usual Sunday afternoon services ser-vices in the building They found the upper room had become so full of smoke that it was impossible to enter the building Now the alarm became general and soon hundreds of men women and chil dren were gathered around the doomed building About twenty minutes after the discovery dis-covery of the fire the fire laddies came dashing Up the street with hose cart and hook and ladder truck But by the time they had reached the building running and puling the apparatus they were pretty well exhausted By this time the smoke tme began pouring pour-ing through crevices in the high Gothic windows of the capacious auditorium audi-torium Until now the people had hopes but at this they began to lose hope The fire laddies with axes dashed in a window on the southeast corner crner of the building and sent strong streams of water into the main room But the dense clouds of black smoke which burst from the window drove them back and it I was very dangerous and difcul for them to maintain this position po-sition In the meantime tongues of bright flames were seen through the windows and the smoke was issuing from the cracks around every window and door in the building The splendid chandeliers chande-liers were heard to fall and soon the cracking of heavier timbers were herd The black smoke began to slowly curl up from crevices among the shingles on the high roof and then the fire broke through and the entire roof was 1 a mass of flames The panes of glass i in the windows cracked ominously and I I i fell in with a crash The fire boys fought the flames hard and heroically but the fire was entirely entire-ly too much for them A gale was blowing from the south and when the south windows popped open the flames inside burst forth and directly the entire building was a mass of livid flames I Thousands of people stood around I and inwardly and audibly mourned the great loss The flames leaped wildly into the high frame tower which was soon enveloped en-veloped and fell piecemeal into the ruined auditorium below sending up great clouds of black smoke when they fell The roof did not fall in until i was almost completely eaten up by the devouring element and then it went crashing down in separate pieces The high wind picked up fire brands from the burning tower and carried I them many blocks down into the almost I al-most deserted city to the north An alarm of fire from Mrs Susannah Boothes place took the boys from the now gutted building a quarter of a block away The exterior of this residence res-idence was soon saturated with water and put out of danger No other alarms were sent in While the main building was still in the grasp of the raging flames good work was done in rescuing benches and chairs from the vestry o the east Nothing whatever was saved from the main building When the people began to arrive to attend church they were met at the front entrance of the building build-ing by such a cloud of smoke that no one was able to enter accordingly nothing could be saved An hour after the fire was discovered discov-ered the entire building was a mass of flames and a half hour later all the frame work had been eaten up excepting except-ing an occasional strip of cornice ornamenting or-namenting the towers on the numerous pilasters and tine roof of the vestry At this writing 430 p m nothing is left of this fine brick and rock structure struc-ture excepting the gutted vestry and the blackened charred and cracked walls of the new building I is feared the intense heat and the falling of the great timbers which supported that admirable roof have ruined ru-ined the walls and that an entire new structure will be necessary Stake President Clawson is away up in Mantuathis afternoon but his counselor Charles Kelly was seen by a Herald representative to whom he said saidThe building was worth at least 25000 and we regret exceedingly now that it was not insured this is an over wa sight I am unable to explain When asked if the building would be repaired or another one erected at once he said At present I have no idea what will be done The building was commenced nearly thirty years ago Some fifteen years ago it was sufficiently completed so i could be used for services I was the tabernacle for the Box Elder stake and I was built by contributions from the people of this county A few years ago it was greatly improved when 5000 in improvements were made on i At present the people can ill afford to contribute sufficient means to erect a similar structure More than likely the project will lay quiet for a few years when a larger and still handsomer hand-somer building will be erected on the same threeacre block amid the surrounding curI rounding trees which today witnessed I so disastrous a conflagration Some people are complaining bitterly that there was no insurance on the building a this means that they will be called upon a second time to contribute con-tribute to erect another building in which they can attend services |