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Show TREASURY BLAZE PRODUCES ALARM AT IipUSE Second Fire in 3 Months Causes Damage Estimat-j ed at $75,000 to Federal! Building in Washington' PRESIDENT HARDING WATCHES FIREMEN i Flames Spread to Central Portion of Roof in Same Spot as Before ; Explosion Occurs Early in Fire WASHINGTON, May I iTty A. P.) For the second time In three months, firemen early today battled with a stubborn fire on the roof of the treasury treas-ury department, which for a time assumed as-sumed menacing proportions as the flames, burning through a long superstructure, super-structure, leaped high In the air and cast a threatening glow on the White House Itself, wlille sparka wafted acroaa to Its surrounding terrace. When discovered, at 1:46 a. m. the flames already had gained considerable consider-able headway and were thirty or forty feet high when fire apparatus arrived at the ecene. Gaining Impetua about that time from a dull, rumbling ex-ploalon ex-ploalon which firemen believe waa caused by building materials atnred for use In the present work of raising tho roof of the structure, the blase cast a bright glow on the night sky over the downtown section before It began to aubalde under the effect of water rrom a dozen none lines. The Wlilte House and Washington monument monu-ment stood out In, sharp relief In the fantastlo light of the flames. Awakened by White Housa attendants. attend-ants. President and Mrs. Harding dreaaed and from a window watched the firemen battle the flamea In thv nearby etrvcture. When checked after about thirty mlnutee of effort, tha flames had burned entirely through one section of the superstructure which tope the section of the building that divides the court and had spread to part a of the central portion of the roof. Unofficial Un-official eatlmatea, however, place the damage at not more than $76,000, although al-though It la not known whether this adequately took Into account the possible pos-sible damage from water. The blase apparently was of much the aame nature as that which occurred oc-curred on the treasury roof during office of-fice hours, when hundreds of employes were in the building, lest February 6. This was extinguished without heavy damage. |