Postby dognose » Wed Oct 13, 2021 5:31 am
Fire Causes Damage to Building Occupied by Manufacturing Jewelers
Newark, N. J., June 2. — A fire which started from an unknown cause seriously threatened the total destruction last night of the four-story brick building at 345 Halsey St., occupied by the factories of several large jewelry firms, and nearly all of the damage done was to the machinery of these firms and the building itself, the offices and stock of the firms escaping the flames. The building is owned by L. Lelong & Bro., who occupied the ground floor, while on the second floor was the factory of Day, Clark & Co., manufacturing jewelers, and on the third and fourth floors were J. D. Dalzell & Co. and Bippart, Griscom & Osborn, respectively.
The building is a large one, running from Halsey St. through to Nevada St. on the south side of Marshall St. The fire, it is thought, started on the second floor, occupied by Day, Clark & Co., and this firm suffered the greatest damage, although a representative of the concern stated to a Circular-Weekly reporter that their loss would not be more than $2,500, all of which was to machinery, tools and fixtures. Their offices, safes, and stock was not touched and suffered little damage beyond smoke and moisture. The ground floor was very severely drenched with water, while some damage, though not much, was done to the third and fourth floors.
The first indication that there was a fire in the building occurred about 8 o’clock in the evening, when persons in the neighborhood detected the odor of smoke. It was nearly an hour after this when a man discovered smoke pouring in a large volume from the windows of the second floor of the building. Then he saw flames and ran around to the house of Engine Co. No. 3, where an alarm was sent in from box 23, at the engine house. By the time the fire-fighting apparatus arrived the blaze was raging quite fiercely on the second floor and eating through to the third. The firemen lost no time in fighting the blaze, and after squirting water through a dozen windows they succeeded in getting the flames under control. The smouldering sparks, however, were not completely out, as a small flame was seen again about 3 o’clock in the morning, when the watchman who was left in charge summoned help from engine house No. 3. A hand extinguisher put out this flame.
None of the firms can definitely estimate the damage with any degree of certainty at this time, but Mr. Day, of Day, Clark & Co., told a Circular-Weekly reporter that their loss, which is undoubtedly the heaviest, would not exceed $2,500, and he thought that all the damage could be repaired and the factory be running with full force again in less than two weeks. They expected by Monday that a quarter of the men could be put to work again in one wing of the factory by fitting up electric motors and obtaining power in this way. All of the loss is fully covered by insurance.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 8th June 1904
Trev.
