Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1890 — FATAL FLAMES. [ARTICLE]

FATAL FLAMES.

At six o’clock Thursday morning, fire was discovered in the large new building Owned and occupied by the Unicorn Silk Manufacturing Co., at Catasnque, Pa. An alarm was quickly sounded but owing to the hour, the fire companies, which are composed of volunteer working men from the different furnaces, factories and mills, were under the impression that the whistles as usual, were calling them to their day’s work, and did not respond until the fire had a headway of about twenty minutes. Upon their arrival at the scene of the conflagration considerable difficulty was experienced iu securing water for the fire engines, as the mill was built on the bluff overlooking the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company’s Canal and the Lehigh River, half a mile from town. They ran their engines down a hill on the other side to the canal and Boon had two streams of water on the building, which was by this time a mass of flames. In spite of th,e intense heat, the brave firemen worked like beavers in hopes of saving the storerooms and engine house, and here is where a catastrophe took placo, which his thrown this quiet townj into a state of excitement and cast a gloom | over the entire neighborhood. While the! firemen and employes were working hard[ to control the fire, an explosion of vitrol; and other acids took place and before thej firemen could escape several of their num- t ber were caught by tho falling walls, audj many were injured by the flying debris. Six or sevon persons were killed Sind many others injured.