Firemen were still fighting a smoldering fire Saturday in the “hull fibre” building at the Buckeye Cotton Oil Company, where flames originated about 6 o’clock Friday evening. A stream of water was kept on the cotton hulls throughout the night. The slowness with which the product burns and the difficulty in extinguishing it likely will cause it to burn for some days, firemen said.
The damage and loss could not be estimated Saturday morning by officers of the company. They said it would run quite high but no figures could be given. Asked if they considered it would reach $10,000, they replied that it would be far in excess of that amount.
An unusual method of fire-fighting was developed Friday night when policemen were called out with riot guns to shoot holes in the galvanized iron sides of the building in order to permit the throwing of water into the structure. The great heat of the walls made work by firemen with pickaxes impossible. The riot guns, loaded with buckshot, were successful in blowing big holes in the walls through which streams of water could be thrown with effect.
A low grade of cotton known as “hull fiber” was stored in the two-story building. It was this which caught on fire. The fibre was valued at about $10,000, according to an estimate.
The fire in the building heating the galvanizing iron walls made the structure appear like a huge red-hot stove. The lack of openings at strategic points in the walls necessitated the use of the riot guns to blow holes at places where fire would be thrown upon the slow-burning fire.
From The Charlotte News, June 25, 1921
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