Western Glass Manufacturing Company, Denver, Colorado

FIRE DESTROYS D. T. & W. WAREHOUSE

AND DENVER GLASS WORKS PLANT

Fire this morning destroyed or damaged an immense quantity of valuable merchandise stored in the four-story warehouse of the Denver Transit and Warehouse company on Wynkoop street, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth, and gutted the building.

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Burned Quickly.

Two hundred men are out of employment and a loss of $150,000 has been sustained by a fire which yesterday afternoon destroyed the plant of the Western Glass company at South Eighth and Bayaud streets. All of the buildings, which were of frame, burned to the ground in a few minutes. The loss in buildings is insignificant, but in machinery and stock rises to the large total.

The explosion of one of the Standard Oil tank cars caused the fire, but just what caused the oil to explode is not known. The car was standing on a sidetrack on the western edge of the plant; the wind was blowing from the west. The burning oil covered the gas-producing room, in which fires are always maintained, and in a few seconds the entire western end of the factory was a mass of flames.

Only a few men work in the gas producing department and these had plenty of time to escape. The entire works were only one story high and it was simply a case of running out of one of the doors. No one was near the tank car.

The high wind carried the flames the length of the factory in a few minutes. The flimsy structure was only that much highly flammable fuel. When the firemen arrived there was little to do, because everything of value was already beyond hope of saving. The nearest buildings of importance are those of the Western Chemical company, but they were in no danger, because they are three blocks distant and the wind was blowing the sparks and embers in the opposite direction. Eastward there are no buildings for a quarter of a mile.

Because of the fact that very little could be done to save property only one engine was sent out, that of company No. 11, with Assistant Fire Chief J. J. Moses in charge. The hose from companies 7 and 12 was also called, because the fire plugs in this district are necessarily far apart.

Efforts were directed chiefly to the saving of the stock sheds, where several thousand dollars worth of bottles - the finished product - were kept. This shed extends along the northern front of the factory, and by brave work, the firemen going into the flimsy firetrap without hesitation, they managed to hold back the flames long enough for some of the stock to be carried out.

The books of the company were saved. The offices were in the part farthest away from the place where the fire originated and there were about fifteen minutes of time to carry them out, which the clerks did.

With the exception of hair singeing by the firemen and of the four or five men who happened to be in the gas generating room, adjacent to the exploding tank car, no one was injured. One man, a carpenter, Henry V. Johnson, forgot his coat and dinner bucket in his haste to get out. He daringly returned into the smoke-filled shop, but succeeded in getting out without any difficulty. A number of girls were employed in the packing department, but they did not suffer from anything but excitement.

M. W. Gano, general manager of the company and one of the most heavily interested, early got to the scene of the fire. He was downtown when he first heard of it and made a record-breaking trip of four miles in his automobile. He estimates the net loss at $50,000. The gross loss is about $150,000, which is chiefly in molds, furnaces and appliances. Insurance covers all but the $50,000.

Interested with Mr. Gano are Gerald Hughes, F. R. Ashley, Harry C. James and John Porter.

Run Day and Night

The chief and about the only product of the company is bottles. These are supplied in enormous quantities to the different pickling and bottling concerns of Denver and Colorado and to the canneries, creameries and milkmen. The business has lately grown to large proportions and the greatest number of employes in the history of the plant were at work. There were night and day shifts.

"We were overcrowded with orders," said Mr. Gano yesterday afternoon, "enough to keep us busy for a year at least. We had just entered on our period of greatest prosperity. We were counting on making additions.

"We are confident enough of the future to rebuild on a larger scale and in a more substantial manner. Our next plant will be entirely of steel and corrugated iron - those parts in which the furnaces and glass blowing are located. Our offices we will build of brick and stone some distance away."

The big net loss is due to the fact that the old frame buildings made it hard to get insurance at low enough rates, and as little as could be safely carried had been written.

The new plant will cost in the neighborhood of $200,000. Work will start as soon as the embers are cool. The old employes will all be retained and asked to wait upon the completion of the works.