Riddle Plant Swept by Fire
Involving a Loss of Over $160,000.00 — Most Disastrous Conflagration in the History of Portage County — One Hundred Skilled Workmen out of Employment — Plant to be Rebuilt in Sixty Days.
The Riddle plant is in ruins, excepting the repository. Fire destroyed the great factory early Sunday morning and all that is visible of the former home of busy workmanship is a series of ragged ruins. Such is a brief statement of the most disastrous fire in the history of Ravenna.
About ten o'clock Saturday night Arthur Lee, one of the employees, discovered a fire in the wood working department near a stove used for the heating of glue, and having a key to the building entered it and with the assistance of a few who responded to his outcry, put out the flames which had gained but small headway before the arrival of the department. Although everything was supposed to be safe from a further outbreak, the policemen were instructed to keep close watch of the building during the remainder of the night.
There was no further evidence of fire until about midnight when the officers, who had visited the building every fifteen minutes, thought they detected smoke for the second time and promptly aroused H. W. Riddle, the president of the company, who went with them to make further investigation. They found a smoldering fire near where the first one was discovered and after extinguishing this and thoroughly wetting down the floor made a tour of all the rooms but could find no further evidence of danger.
About 2:40 o'clock Officer W. J. Hotchkiss discovered a third outbreak and sent Henry Carroll to turn in another alarm while he ran to Mr. Riddle's house on the opposite side of the street from the plant to again arouse him. Almost the entire building seemed suddenly to burst into flame, which by the time the firemen were again on the scene had taken such hold of the dry interior as to advertise the fate of the building. The big structure, with 60 feet frontage and three stories high, was almost instantly a holocaust of fierce fire that leaped and roared to astonishing heights above the dense sea of smoke that rolled out in stifling mass from the windows.
A small blaze on the roof of Severance's bakery, 500 feet to the west and across the street, for a moment threatened a terrible situation, as the White hospital, well filled with patients, is in direct connected line. The ambulance was called out, but a change in the wind to the southwest brought safety from this new danger.
It was a fortunate event that during the greater portion of the progress of the fire there was comparative atmospheric quiet — a circumstance that permitted the entire interior of the main building to burn out in an almost perpendicular column of flames. Everything but the walls of the big building was burned before the latter began to fall. This fortunate event enabled the firemen to save the large repository which had been emptied of its stock of choice funeral cars and landaus.
Everything in the office was destroyed excepting the books in the safe. The wood workers, twenty-five in number, all lost their tools, valued at from $200 to $500 per set.
It is impossible to more than roughly estimate the loss to the Riddle Company, but the figure is believed to be not far from one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The insurance was $19,750, placed across ten separate mutual insurance companies.
With splendid promptitude and characteristic energy the company made instant decision to rebuild.
Notes
It was a hot one. The firemen fought bravely. Many citizens rendered valuable aid.
H. P. Morgan is the oldest employee in the factory in point of years and time of service. He is 84 years of age and has held the position of trimmer for forty-two years. This makes the third factory fire he has been through — the two Riddle fires and one while in the employ of the Collins Company at Akron before coming to Ravenna.
It was a $3,500 Riddle company funeral car that conveyed the remains of the martyred McKinley to their final resting place in Canton, and a dozen of similar pattern were in process of construction at the time of the fire.
Crystal Lake was lowered one inch, representing about 200,000 gallons of water used. Coffee and sandwiches were served from the Riddle home to the firemen and assisting workers.
Ravenna has the sympathy of Warren in the destruction of the Riddle Coach & Hearse Co.'s plant by fire Sunday morning. It is a big loss, but the town is to be congratulated that the plant is to be immediately rebuilt. — Warren Chronicle.
