Hemingray plant destroyed by fire

BIG BLAZE AT MUNCIE.

Glass Works Destroyed With Loss of

$200,000.

The most destructive fire that ever occurred in Muncie was the burning of the C. H. Over window-glass-works and the Hemingray flint-glass factory last Saturday, entailing a loss of over $200,000. While a Lake Erie & Western switch-engine was doing some work on the track between the two big factories a spark from the engine ignited a car-load of packing straw and soon after the engine departed the flames burst out. A warehouse near by caught fire, and from there each of the big factories was fired, and in just forty-five minutes each was a mass of ruins, and over three hundred employes out of work. The buildings were of sheet iron and wood, and burned with great rapidity, leaving nothing but brick, iron and molten glass.

The Hemingray Glass Company came to Muncie from Covington, Ky., and was listed as the finest factory of the kind in the country. Their loss on buildings and machinery is about $90,000 on stock, $20,000; insurance, $31,500.

The Over factory was the first window-glass-house to locate in the gas belt, coming here from Bellaire, Ohio, and the concern was one of the largest in the West. The total loss on buildings is estimated at $70,000, stock $60,000; insurance 45,000. This firm was to have closed down in two weeks for the summer vacation, and every available place was filled with stock.

The furnace at the Hemingray factory was uninjured, and a shed is being built around it for the blowers to work under temporarily until a new factory is built. The rains that evening badly damaged the Over furnaces, but they will be remodeled, and that night Mr. Over stated that he would at once re-build. Industry in the southeast part of the city with six mammoth factories has no water for protection, and Saturday's loss is a result. After two years' dallying by the City Council they recently ordered the water-works company to extend its mains, and they are now partially constructed, but too late. Five loaded box-cars, two with sand and one with straw, consigned to Hemingray, and two with lumber for Over were burned.