Hemingray Glass Company - Muncie, Indiana

$250,000

GO UP IN SMOKE IN

ONE HOUR.

The Hemingray and Over

Glass Houses

BURNED TO THE GROUND.

A Spark From a Lake Erie

Switch Engine

Starts the Big Fire.

THE WATER WORKS JUSTLY

CONDEMNED FOR NEGLIGENCE.

Insurance is About $75,000.

Both Factories Will be Rebuilt This Summer.

The Fire Department

Almost Helpless to Lend Aid.

A little spark from a switch engine. It drops into a little heap of straw.

In ten minutes two immense factories are in flames and in one hour both are in ashes.

Three hundred men are out of employment, and the owners see over a quarter of a million dollars go up in smoke.

The fire department get there on time, considering the long distance, but without plenty of water are powerless.

Briefly this tells the tale of one of the most disastrous fires that ever visited the city of Muncie. At the Hemingray and Over glass works, where this morning 300 men were at work, nothing but a pile of ruins exist.

HOW IT STARTED.

At just 10 o'clock the Lake Erie switch engine was standing between the Over and Hemingray glass works waiting for a car load of glass to be sealed. The fireman threw in a couple of shovels of coal and stirred up the furnace.

This sent a shower of sparks high into the air; one fell into a pile of straw and in but a few seconds the packing room of the Hemingray factory was in flames.

Bob Hemingray at once telephoned for the City department and the entire apparatus of the Ball Bros., was being brought into use.

The hose from Balls would not reach the factory. The flames spread rapidly, being fanned by a

South West Wind.

And it was but a few minutes until the flames were going through the Over window glass factory.

A Short Story.

The story was a short one. In less than an hour every building, warehouse, packing room and furnace of the Over glass works was in ruins. The Hemingray factory was not far behind for their fine foundry and machine shop, which has no equal in any glass house in the west, warehouses, and everything except one warehouse and the office, was charred boards and a ruined wreck.

No one ever saw a quarter of a million dollars burn quicker, and where the hundreds of the people around were so helpless.

The water at the Ball works was all that could be secured, and that came too late to be of any use in getting the fire under control. While this one stream did an immense amount of good, saving a few thousand dollars worth of property, that simply illustrated what the department would have been able to do had they had plenty of water where it could have been used at once.

The Loss.

As near as can be calculated, on a rough estimate, after talking with the two proprietors of the large industries, the loss will run about as follows:

Hemingray: stock $20,000, factory, packing-buildings, ware-rooms, machine shops, tools, etc., $90,000, making a total of $110,000. On this great loss they had but $31,500 insurance, the distribution of which is given below.

The big ten pot furnace at Hemingray's is not considered to be injured, at least to any great extent.

The loss at Over's will be about $130,000; they having nearly $60,000 of window glass all boxed and ready to ship, while the factory furnaces, and general glass house material was valued at about $70,000.

Their insurance was $43,300. A few hundred dollars worth of stock was saved, aside from which the entire industry was a total loss.

The insurance was as follows:

On Over's Factory and Stock

British America......................2,000.

Niagara.................................1,500.

Sun Fire Office.......................2,750.

Manchester............................2,000.

Norwich Union.......................2,000.

Michigan Fire & Marine..........1,500.

Fireman's Baltimore................1,200.

Western of Toronto.................1,500.

Trades...................................2,000.

German of Peoria...................1,000.

State Investment.....................1,000.

St. Paul Fire & Marine............1,250.

Lancashire..............................2,500.

Imperial..................................2,000.

Home.....................................2,000.

North British & Mercantile........2,000.

Imperial..................................4,000.

Evansville...............................2,000.

Caledonia...............................1,000.

Springfield Fire & Marine..........1,000.

Indiana Underwriters...............2,000

Scottish Union.........................1,500.

Hamburg-Bremen...................1,100.

On the pot house at Over's by the Reading,     600.

Insurance at Hemingray's.

Norwich Union........................2,000.

Manchester.............................2,750.

Lancashire..............................3,000.

British America.......................2,500.

St. Paul................................2,500.

North British Mercantile..........1,250.

Springfield..............................1,000.

Michigan Fire & Marine......... 1,000.

Imperial..................................2,000.

Hamburg-Bremen...................2,000.

Traders..................................2,500.

Sun Fire Office.......................2,500.

Evansville...............................2,500.

State Investment.....................1,000.

Western.................................2,000.

Cussing the Water Co.

The losers had a grand kick coming on the water company, and they were not very slow in saying just what they thought.

Many months ago the city ordered water mains on Macedonia Avenue, together with miles of other mains. The two doomed glass factories had ordered the five extra hydrants put in for the protection of their plants, and had asked the managements of the water company to lay the Macedonia line as quick as possible. Some of the city officials had tried to get this line laid, but they were unsuccessful, the water company preferring to lay the mains out in the suburbs where they will probably never be needed.

Why this obstinacy on the part of the management, no one can say but it was the means of losing Muncie two large factories, for there is no doubt but that with water protection at hand, the Over factory would have been damaged but little and but one of the Hemingray ware houses would have been consumed, but as it is, everything is lost. We suppose that now the water works people will just make things fly to get in that line.

With the hose they had at hand, and with hydrants handy, as both Hemingray and Over had them ordered, the fire would never have spread, as every member of the fire department knows, but as it was they were powerless.

Cars Burned.

Several freight cars were burned, but just how many could not be learned. There were two cars of sand, for Hemingray, one car of shucks, two of lumber, all received this morning; one car load of insulators ready for shipment, and several empties ready to load. Many of these could have been saved by the train crew if they had went after them.

May Rebuild.

Dr. A. R. Smith, the Secretary of the Over company, stated that he did not know whether they would rebuild or not, it being too early yet to talk about that. They had the largest stock in the ware house that they before had on hand, which made the loss exceedingly heavy on them.

While it is very probable that the Over factory will be rebuilt, yet nothing certain can be given in regard to that at this time.

Will Lose No Time.

Bob Hemingray was here at the fire, and took affairs as coolly as anyone could under the circumstances. Ralph is at Covington, but was wired that the entire factory had gone up in flames.

Bob said that they would commence at once to rebuild. The furnaces are uninjured, and as the Hemingray's have a large contract on hand for insulators for the Western Union, they can afford to lose no time.

Already this afternoon they are cleaning away the rubbish.

Tomorrow a temporary shed will be erected and on Monday they will commence to make glass and push the work just as fast as it is possible for them to.

The entire factory will be rebuilt this summer. The Hemingray's had the finest machine shop of any glass factory in the west, making all of their own moulds, etc. The loss in this department is very large.

Season Nearly Over.

The fires would have gone out at both factories on June 30, there being but ten days more for the men. Should they rebuild, which is probable, all will be ready to start by September with the fall fires.

Notes of the Fire.

Joe Cheesman was the first man to give an alarm.

All of the water used came from Ball Bros., and was a great help.

Over had intended to build a large brick warehouse this summer.

Harry Richey was on hand as common doing valuable work for the department.

The employees worked hard to save all the stock possible from the Over ware house.

Chat Taylor, of the fire department got his full share of the warmth that was so abundant.

Chief Shepp did everything that was possible, the fire was just more than they could handle.

Insurance companies do not like glass house risks, which is the cause of the insurance being so small.

While the buildings were all in flames, Bob Hemingray announced that he would make glass next Monday.

Martin Shafer had finished a ware house for Hemingray last week. That was their only building that escaped.

The water company is receiving plenty of just criticism for leaving the Macedonia extension, the most important one ordered, until last.

The chemical was kept busy dodging around among the dwellings keeping them from burning. The home of Tenny Kieckner was on fire several times.

This will be the expensive lesson that will bring us more fire stations and a better fire department. It takes a pretty expensive lesson to learn the council what we need.