Bay City, Mich., July 24 — Two of Handy Brothers‘ three box factories together with $10,000 worth of lumber, one residence and eight cars belonging to the Michigan Central ad Grand Trunk railways were destroyed by fire tonight entailing a total loss of about $86,000.
Two persons. both spectators, were injured. Arthur Canberry, seated with two other men in a rig, was thrown out when the animal, becoming frightened by a passing engine, tore into the fire area and dashed through smoke and flames between lumber plies. The rig was overturned, and one of the Canberry’s legs broken. The other two men were uninjured, except for bruises. Harry Kitchen, a 12-Year-old boy, fell from a lumber pile while watching the fire, and one leg was broken. Handy Brothers will rebuild at once, erecting one plant with an increase of capacity over the two destroyed. Their third plant will be able to handle their business until the new’ factory is built.
The origin of the fire le unknown. About 7 o’clock smoke was seen coming from the plant and by the time the first fire company arrived the entire main building was in flames. A general alarm was at once turned in and all the apparatus in the city was brought into use because of the danger of flames spreading to the surrounding houses.
The district ls densely settled, and lumber is plied close to the residences. The department was given a hard fight, but after three hours had the fire under control, but not until the flames had attacked a residence owned by Otto Kaiser, which was totally destroyed.
Traffic over both the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk tracks was suspended until after midnight, both tracks running through the Handy yards. The rails were twisted by heat so that the road bed was torn up.
Handy Bros.’ loss is about $70,000, covered by insurance. The Michigan Central’s loss ls about $5,000 and that of the Grand Trunk $2,000. Kaiser’s loss is $2,100.
