Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — LOSS HALF A MILLION. [ARTICLE]

LOSS HALF A MILLION.

THE MILWAUKEE STREET-CAR BARNS DESTROYED. \ v«k ijL >. Unknown Man Threw a Bomb Into the Main Building, Which Exploded an'd Set Fire to the Interior—Machinery and Stable* Consumed. Infested with Firebugs. At 2 o’clock Wednesday morning a bomb was thrown into the main building of the South Side plant of the Milwaukee Street Bailroad Company. There was a tremendous explosion, and in a moment the Interior of the building was in a blaze. In a few minutes the fire was beyond control, and in less thnn an hour the entire plant was consumed, entailing a loss of S6IO,O(K'. The street railway company’s South Side plant is located on Kinnikinnick avenue. It includes the immense storage stables for electric motors, the machine shops, and the stables. In the barn were thirty new electric motors. The machine shops were built the past season, and were fitted with very fine machinery for the rebuilding and repairing of cars. In the stables were sixty horses, but these were gotten out alive. The cars stored in the building were valued at $350,000, while the structure itself is worth at least $60,000. The machinery is valued at fully $76,000, while the stores of the company were kept in the building and were worth $26,000. The only insurance carried was on the building and amounts to $40,000. The barns which were destroyed were the principal depot of the Milwaukee Street hallway Company, and the fire greatly cripples the company.

Who the man is who threw the bomb Is not known. He is supposed to be the firebug who has started fully a dozen other disastrous blazes within a month. A Grand Jury will be summoned to investigate. The only person who saw the alleged bomb thrown was Night Watchman Worden. He says that he was standing near the main doorway of the barn in which the motors and cars were stored. There was a whizz of something through the air, a flash, and a tremendous explosion. If there was a bomb thrown, which many doubt, it came through the main doorway and struck in the car nearest this entrance. The projectile must have been filled with some highly inflammable substance, as hardly ten seconds elapsed, according to the night watchman’s story, before nearly all the cars in the building were in flames. Manager Lynn, of the company, is convinced of the truthfulness of the watchman’s story. That there was an explosion every one in the neighborhood will testify. There was nothing of an explosive nature about the plant, and the electric current was not od, the machinery at the power-house not being in operation. A small cottage next to the plant of the street railway company was also destroyed. A woman residing in the house became paralyzed, and had to be carried out of the house after it was in flames. The rear end of the plant of the Dutcher Stove Company, which has been leased by the Milwaukee Street Bailway Company, was slightly damaged. Investigation shows beyond doubt that the tire which Tuesday destroyed two tanneries, causing a loss of $260,000, and by which two lives were lost, was incendiary. This i 6 also the case with the two fires on Sunday, when $125,000 worth of property burned. Property Owners Alarmed. There is a genuine firebug scare in the city, and what is mere there seems to be good grounds for alarm. Conservative citizens are now thoroughly alarmed and steps are being taken to guard against further loss by fire as much as possible. That incendiaries are at work is no longer doubted by any one conversant with the circumstances surrounding many of the recent fires. The most glaring case was that of the old Keenan mill. Here was an urioobUpied building close to the business center, which was used for storage purposes and in which there had not been a light or a fire for several years, and yet it is suddenly discovered to be ablaze on the evening of the est day of the year. There was not a dollar’s worth of insurance on the building or its contents. Another fact that Is now attracting attention Is that all the fires of mysterious origin have occurred when the weather was best suited to their spreading. On rainy days or when the weather was mild and no wind blowing there have been no fires, excepting those where the origin could be clearly traced. Another curious feature is that 50 per cent of these big fires have occurred in the 3d ward. So large have been the losses and so apparent has i't became that incendiaries are at work that insurance men are becoming alarmed, and a number of outside companies have ordered their local agents to take no more insurance here, and in several eases have ordered them to cancel many of their risks. Property owners and business men are alarmed and a mass-meeting will be called to consider the matter.