People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1896 — FIRE AT PEORIA, ILL. [ARTICLE]

FIRE AT PEORIA, ILL.

liMMiloa mt Bliim Thought to Be the Work of looeuUsrlM. Peoria, 111., March 18.—The fire bell was clanging almost incessantly between midnight and 2 o’clock Tuesday morning. Five alarms were turned in and the entire department kept at work in the southern portion of the city. The fires were all of mysterious origin, and it is supposed that some one starting from Apple street walked up the railroad tracks leaving a trail ot fire behind him. The first fire was in the Hutchinson cooperage works, the largest plant ol the kind in the city. The fire started near the engine-room and had secured considerable headway when discovered. The rear portion of the building was badly damaged. No estimate of loss could be given, but it is covered by insurance. The engines had scarcely returned to their quarters when two alarms called them to the Manhattan distillery, where an immense hay stack was in flames and threatening destruction to the distillery and the other immense stacks. The hay is all baled, and it was a hard fight the fireman had. They had just got the better of this fire when a few blocks away from them, at the cooperage works of Madigan, Walsh & Co., flames were seen to burst, and two more alarms came in rapid succession. The fire here had a big start before discovery, and the forces had to be divided. The cooperage works were practically destroyed. Nothing is known as to the origin here, but it is presumed to have been incendiary with the rest. A few years ago this was a favorite section for incendiaries, and fires were of almost nightly occurrence there. Thousands of dollars’ worth of property were annually burned up in this way. At 2:45 a. m. the flames from the Madigan. Walsh & Co. plant communicated to the Peoria white lead works on the north. This is a large threestory building, and the fire was in the roof. The firemen soon got it under control, however.