OCR Text |
Show NEW YEAR'S BLAZE IN DETROIT. The Largest Seed "House In the United States Consnmed One Fireman Killed Loss, 81,500,000. , , . Detboit, January 1. Shortly after 9 o'clook this morning smoke was observed coming from D. M. Ferry & Co.'s mammoth building on Brush street, between Croghan and Lafayette 'streets. An . alarm was quickly turned in; a second and third alarms following in quick- succession,' there being promise of a big conflagration in the heart of the business part of the city. The fire department turned out in force, and soon SUBBOUNDED THE BTJBNTNG BUILDING With hose. The flames had started in the packing department, corner of Lafayette and Bruce, and soon enveloped the whole building, which was a mere shell, having but one solid wall inside the outernwall. Bravely and intelligently the firemen kept at work, but all efforts seemed futile, the flames spreading rapidly, until at one time it seemed as if the whole district in which tho burning building is situated was doomed. Across the alley from D. M. Ferry & Co's. building, in the same square - and facing on Randolph street, are White's Grand Theatre and theVeason block, and a small building used as restaurant. ., THE FLAME3 LEAPED ACBOSS THE ALLEY And began to eat into the theatre. The first roof caught and soon fell in with a terrible ter-rible crash; firing the whole interior of the building, after driving away the men who had been working on the Ferry block through the windows of the theatre. The crashing of the window glass was the signal for. increased in-creased fury of the flames, which seemed to laugh at the efforts of the firemen. An im mense crowd blocked the streets m every direction, di-rection, and at times were in the way of the department. By 10 o'clock the Ferry block was a mass of flames. The walls had commenced com-menced to fall, creating something of a panic among the idle spectators, NTTJIEBOUS N4BBQ-i? ESCAPES. OpflUBBED Among the firemen, who worked close to the flames, wrapped in repeatedly- soaked but rapidly drying clothes. By 10:30 White's theatre had been seized, and by 11 the firemen fire-men were compelled to turn their attention to saving the buildings, on the opposite side of "Randolph street, although still keeping numerous streams of water playing on the burning building. At 11 o'olook the men of No. 3 Fire Company raised a ladder to the front of , the Theatre to get a better chance at. the flames; Finding the . rapidly . advancing fire would prevent any effective work at that, point, the men were descending the ladder, and had about reached the ground, when several feet of the cornice fell to' the laddep'wagon. Captain Richard Filban was struck on tho'headby a brick and . instantly tiled, and fireman White was badly but not fatally injured. Boon after 11 the games -spread to the Wea son block, on the oornei! of Randolph and Oraghan streets, aiid that building was soon enveloped In flames, . Although the build-inga build-inga across Craghan street were threatened, and caught once or twice, the department managed to keepit within the square named, and by 12 o'clock it was fully under control. con-trol. . ; , " . - ' Fieroeiy, but have been confined within the buildings already mentioned. During the worst of -the fire the wind has been from the south, and not a single building on the corner cor-ner of Lafayette and Randolph streets was seriously injured, but all the rest of the square was a total loss. D. Ai. Ferry & Co.'a building occupied half a square, beint; one. of the lV6?s in tha oity, Th.tir seed hnsij ness wasprobahly the largest m the United States. Definite figures of the losses cannot be riven, but the total will reach not less than $l,r00,000. The stock alone in D. M. Ferry & Co.'s is estimated to have been wobth fbom $1,000,000 to $1,200,000, And their building was valued at $250,000. As to the origin of the fire there, are even no well-devised theories, . . . ' eoowot the emfilw-ta hint nt .mcendiafc fern; ol?imir.g there were no fires m the patf of the building first attacked by thi flames, and that some outside agency must have been responsible for the fire. Officers of the company are completely at a Ios3 to ao- I i count for the origin of the fire. . |