Indiana, Pennsylvania
Gas House
Fire
May 10, 1890
Fire at the Gas Works.
The alarm of fire at the hour of noon on
Saturday caused many of our citizens to leave
their dinners half eaten, and depart for the
scene of the fire, which was discovered to be
the gas works. Mr. Chas
Denning, the operator at the works,
was engaged in making a charge of oil used in
making the gas, when without warning an
explosion of the oil occurred, setting fire to
the wood work and platforms surrounding the
machinery and threatened the destruction of the
entire plant. The firemen were quickly on hands,
and brought three streams into play on the fire,
before they got it under control. It was a very
stubborn fire and had a good start, but the good
work of the fireman backed up by plenty of water
soon had it under control. The loss was about
$300, with no insurance. No material damage was
done to the machinery of the plant and gas was
manufactured Saturday evening.
Notes
If some of our young fireman could extinguish a
fire without so much profanity their records
would go up.
A steam fire engine can't hold a candle to our
water works.
Spoiled dinners won on the gas house fire.
The exchange of courtesies by water between East
and West ends [Fire Companies] raised
considerable comment.
The directors or curb stone fire extinguishers
don't get much recognition from the fire boys.
The boys are getting on to how to do the
business fiast [sic] class, but there are still
a few too many bosses.
The Indiana Gazette, Indiana, PA 14 May
1890
Transcribed by Trudi. Thank you,
Trudi!
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