$225,000 Fire Ruins 5 Uptown Plants

Taken shortly after daylight today, this photograph shows firemen still pouring water on the ruins of the Varoma building on Erie street from the roof of the Evans Leather Company building adjoining. Five industries were wiped out in the blaze which caused damage estimated at $225,000.

Sweeping through the Varoma Building on Erie street and driving 80 persons from their homes, a spectacular fire early today wrecked the quarters of five industrial concerns and caused damage estimated at $225,000. Responding to three alarms, every piece of fire apparatus in the city, with the exception of the "cover-up" companies, fought the blaze for hours. Handicapped by the location of fire-plugs and the breakdown of several pieces of apparatus, the firemen prevented the flames from spreading to the huge building of the Evans Leather Company, which forms an "L" on two sides of the burned structure. Twenty dwellings on the east side of Segal street, separated from the Varoma building only by a narrow alley, were also saved after their occupants had fled to the street. Fire Chief Thomas Nicholas announced later today, after the flames had been brought under control, that he would begin a rigid investigation into the blocking of Segal street by a high board fence and the piling of refuse around a fireplug at the head of the street. The wrecked building is owned by the Varoma Corporation of which Thomas Van Osten, of Palmyra, is president; William MacIntosh, 3[?]7 Vine street, vice president; Alfred Van Osten, of Palmyra, secretary, and David B. Robinson, of West Colling[illegible] Building Loss $50,000 MacIntosh today estimated the damage to the building alone at $50,000. He is also president of the MacIntosh Printing and Lithographing Company, of which James J. Stinson, of Merchantville is secretary. Damage estimated at $10,000 resulted from the fire in the quarters of that concern. The other industries, all located in the big brick building, which suffered in the blaze, with official estimate of the damage to each, are as follows: Blue and Gray Textile Company, of which T. A. Carr, of 302 Porter road, Fairview, is president, $30,000. Allied Metal Stamping Company, of which Joseph A. Skublicki, of 115 State street, is president, and William Daugherty, vice president, $75,000. James A. MacMillan & Co., manufacturing chemists, headed by James MacMillan, of 809 North Third street, $10,000. Philadelphia Metal Stamping Company, of which firm Clement A. and Mrs. Florence Perrin, of Collingswood, and Edwin L. Seabrook, of 566 Benson street, are members, $50,000. Other Concerns Escape The fire was discovered at 5.35 o'clock by a watchman who sounded the first alarm. The flames had started, from causes as yet undetermined, in that portion of the building occupied by the Blue & Gray Textile Company. The building, which housed nine separate industries, covered an area 100 by 300 feet. Part of it was one story in height and another part two stories. Four of the industries in the two-story section of the building escaped serious damage. They are Kruse & Slattery, tool-makers; the Camden Hardware Manufactu[illegible] Company, the Wolf Company, [illegible]facturers of advertising novel[illegible] the Thomas C. Van Osten [illegible] pattern-makers, headed [illegible]dent of the concern [illegible] building. Continued on [illegible] The structure, at 105-107 Erie street, extends back almost to Segal street and has a frontage covering most of the block on Erie street between Second and Burns streets. Arrivnig in response to the watchman's alarm, Chief Nicholas visioned the danger of repetition of the fire nine years ago when buildings at the same location were wiped out by flames. He immediately sounded the second and third alarms, bringing almost every piece of apparatus in the city to the scene. Carr, president of the textile company, estimated the loss there at [illegible]0,000, stating that a large shipment of intricate machinery from Germany had arrived only a few days ago. The concern was anticipating removal, in a short time, to larger quarters at Ninth and State streets, Carr added. From the two large rooms occupied by the Blue & Gray textile firm, the flames swung over to the quarters of the Allied Metal Stamping Company. Daugherty, the vice-president of this concern, said his company was filling a large order for electric switch-boxes and had been working at capacity for several weeks. Switch-boxes valued at $40,000 were destroyed by the fire with machinery and other equipment valued by Daugherty at an additional [illegible],000. Blasts Add to Perils Moving northward, the flames next struck the MacMillan plant, where chemicals are manufactured for paints and drug companies. Here the flames reached a number of containers of chemicals and, for a time, the blaze was punctuated by a series of explosions. Here, firemen risked imminent peril to their lives by carrying other containers of chemicals out of reach of the flames. Still continuing northward; the fire next reached the MacIntosh lithographing plant and spread through the cutting and shipping rooms, causing damage estimated at $10,000 before firemen succeeded in dragging two lines of hose into this section of the building and driving back the flames. The Philadelphia Metal Supply Company went next as the fire swept eastward. In this plant, metal cornices and valuable hand-made dies were destroyed at a loss estimated by Perrin, a member of the firm, at $50,000. Arriving at the scene, apparatus from Engine Companies No. 1 and No. [?] developed boiler trouble and were unable to work. Firemen were further handicapped by the fact that the Evans Leather Company has blocked off Segal street at the north end by a high board fence. A fireplug at this point was also blocked by a pile of chemical containers, declared to have been placed there by the leather company. Declaring that he could have attached at least [?]our more hose lines had this plug not been blocked, Chief Nicholas announced that he would conduct an investigation. He said also that leather company had failed to place gates in the Segal street fence, as city officials required them to do when permission was given for erection of the barrier. Hose lines were taken to the flat roof of the Evans company, high above the burning building, and water poured onto the flames from this altitude. Hundreds of persons were attracted to the scene by the spectacular nature of the fire, which was visible from the Camden bridge and for miles around. A police detail [illegible] by Chief James E. Tatem and Inspector Lewis Etehr kept the crowds in chec[?]. Firemen escaped injury while fighting the flames at their height but, while they were still pouring [illegible] streams of water onto the ruins shortly before noon today, the first casualty occurred. Emanuel Kane, of 703 North Third street, a fireman attached to Engine Company No. 6, was struck on the head and knocked down by a 12-foot length of steel bar, six inches thick, which pinned him under it as it fell. Companions ran to his aid, lifted the bar from him and revived him. Hospital treatment was not necessary. Eight other firemen narrowly escaped serious injury a few minutes later when a section of the east wall fell. The eight men were standing under the wall when one of them saw it totter. They dashed from the spot just in time to avoid being buried by the falling debris. Three of these firemen were from Engine Company No. [?] at Fifth and Arch streets; three from No. 4, Fourth and Vine streets, and two from No. 2 Company, Front and Linden streets. Jack Sperry, an Evening Courier photographer, was walking along the roof of a part of the burned building when he fell through a portion of it which had been burned from beneath. Pinned at his arm-pits, he was dragged out. He got his picture. While carrying a hose line into the [illegible] structure, Firemen Harry Lee [illegible] David Ellis were knocked down [illegible] coupling blew off the hose but [illegible] hurt. [illegible] wild confusion was [illegible] street when members [illegible] whose homes were threatened by the flames, rushed to the street, many of them clad only in night clothing. Carrying screaming children with them, occupants of the dwellings also dashed out with furniture and personal belongings which they piled in the street. Cellars of the score of houses on Segal street were flooded by water from the firehoses, which was knee-deep amid the ruins. Families whose homes were menaced and who were driven from the dwellings were those of Paul Warner, 1002 Segal street; Frank Bosco, 1004; Giles Beebe, 1006; Howard Pratt, 1008; Mrs. Mary Sweeten, 1010; Charles Randall, 1012; Harry Burr, 1014; John Sweeten, 1016; Leona Moore, 1018; Dora Annastasio, 1020; John Hamilton, 1024; Abe Granis, 1026; George Stewart, 1028; Arthur Wilkins, 1032; Charles Stutzenburg, 1034; George Wilson, 1036; George Bowers, 1040, and A. W. Dickinson, 1042 Segal street. The fire today was the fourth big blaze that has occurred on the site. The first was in 18[?]7, when a roller mill and nail factory were destroyed. In the second, in 1908, flames destroyed the morocco plant of R. H. Evans Company. In 1919, with the temperature at the zero point, firemen were again called out to fight another disastrous blaze in the Evans plant that had been rebuilt.