Salt Lake Tribune | 1908-04-17 | Page 1 | Incendiaries Caused Much of Frisco's Loss

INCENDIARIES CAUSED jSH MUCH OF FRISCO'S LOSS H SAN FRANCISCO. April 16. Tho jury, iu an action tried in the Superior ! court of t,his eity 3'csterday,- decided lM that at least a large part of the con- tlagration of April IS, 1H06, was the jH work of incendiaries. A suit was brought by the California. iH Wine association against the Commer-cial Commer-cial Union Kire Insurance company of New York for insurance on property jH situated in the vicinity of Fifth and Branan streets. "While the insurance company introduces a mass of testi-mony testi-mony concerning the force and effect of the earthquake, the wine associa- J tion introduced the testimony of I wo witnesses who saw men ignite the ruins of a building situated on Sixth street, about four blocks below Market street. H Caused Millions of Loss. Tt was shown that i his fire spread il and destroyed a district embraced be- jH tween Fourth street on the east, Sov- H enth street on the west, Folsom street flH on the north and Townsend street on iH the south, involving a destruction of IH man' millions of dollars' worth of prop- jtH erly. The amount of insurance on mH property situated in this district, not HH yet settled, is believed to be in tho jH neighborhood of three or. four million dollars'. jH One of the most extraordinary "bits of corroboration of the testimony re- garding the incendiarism was that of jH a witness named Nelson, who saw a jH similar act of vandalism on Fifth street, near Folsom street, where a thug was' seen to throw a lighted rag lH into a store. JH H has long been believed that in- fM cendiarism, with disastrous conae- quences, plaved a large part, in tho 11 calamity of April 18. lOOli.though this gH is tho first occasion on which tho fact a has been definitely established. Tho j fH proof of this incendiary fire destroys j fH the claim of those insurance companies, : IH as to the district involved, which re- lied on the technical defense of earth- i jH quake fires to defeat the San Francisco lH loss claimants.