What will probably be the worst automobile garage fire in the history of these disasters which have fell upon the automobile industry in this city during the past few years left the two adjacent two-story buildings of the Davis Bros. Ford Motor Sales Co. on N. Market St. in ruins Sat. morning.
Originating about 6:30 o’clock the blaze was finally extinguished shortly before noon after practically the entire structure had been destroyed and the work of two complete fire depts. had barely prevented the destruction of the buildings in at least two other blocks to the east and south.
A high wind was blowing when the fire was first discovered and that the smoke from the burning building spread like a heavy cloud over the east part of the city for many blocks while the gale carried the sparks of fire across the street and caught at least one of the frame structures on the east side of the street.
With Marion and Murphysboro fire departments fighting the blaze, garden hose and bucket brigades fought for the preservation of the frame dwellings, store and garage buildings in the surrounding blocks while residents in the houses surrounding loaded their household goods on trucks and moved them out of danger.
Only one dwelling house was destroyed. That was the frame bungalow west of the garage on White St, the former home of the late Fred Davis, founder of the Davis Bros. Sales Co. This building located adjacent to the garage building was burned to the ground. A family by the name of McArthur occupied the house and saved all of their household goods except a cook stove.
An estimate of the loss is impossible and officials of the company refused Saturday to make any attempt at a declaration of the damage. The two garage buildings were valued at $150,000 and that composed the greatest amount of the loss. While both floors of the two buildings were well filled with automobiles, most of the machines were saved. Practically everything on the first floor was moved out although the cars upstairs burned. The loss consisted mainly of used cars and cars which had been stored for the winter. Included among them were several stolen cars recovered by Police and county authorities and stored in the garage for safe keeping.
The company lost few new cars. All of the Lincoln cars in stock were moved out. Two new Ford sedans and three trucks which had not been assembled made up most of the loss on new cars according to Milan Motsinger, manager. All of the loss and the loss of used cars held by the company was covered by insurance. Seventy-five thousand dollars insurance was carried on the building.
It was impossible Saturday for the sales company officials to learn just who of their patrons lost cars, due to the confusion that prevailed while the machines were being moved out of the building but it was believed that few privately owned cars were lost. The fire originated on the second floor of the north building in the northwest corner of the large storage room.
It was first located by Vick Willard, employee of the garage. The smoke of the fire was first seen coming down the elevator shaft by Neilson, a night mechanic and Willard who was just coming into the garage to begin work for the day sprang on the elevator and went to the second floor. When he reached the upstairs storeroom he could see through the smoke to discern that a truck near the rear of the room was on fire.
Attempting to fight the blaze with a hand fire extinguisher, he called to Neilson who sent in an alarm to the fire department. The location of the fire and the fact that a dairy truck was the first car seen burning offered grounds for the theory that the fire originated from a grounded storage battery on the truck. That is the only theory advanced as to the origin of the fire.
Ed Ashby, the other of the two night men on duty, had been on the second floor about 6:20 o’clock placing the dairy company’s truck in storage, and he reported at that time that everything was all right in the storage room. When the Marion fire dept. under the direction of Fire Chief James Swain arrived the fire engine was connected to a plug near the Presbyterian Church and two streams of water were thrown on the building. As the firemen got into action it appeared certain that the south building could be saved.
The two buildings were separated only by a fire wall equipped with steel fire doors, but the firemen were in action early enough that it at first appeared that the blaze could be stopped at the firewall and confined to the first building. While the water was being played on the roof and on the north wall of the building the employees of the Davis Co. and literally hundreds of volunteers moved the machines and automobile equipment out of the building.
Some of the cars were driven out under their own power while many were pushed out by eager hands of the volunteers. One car whose owner had left it locked was literally lifted out of the building by the strength of the workers who saved it in spite of the owner’s mistake in leaving it locked. While the local firemen were attempting to hold the fire in check until help could arrive from outside the Carbondale fire chief John Cooney arrived with the news that the fire engine could not come as a bearing had been burned out and it was laid up for repairs. He had however phoned the Murphysboro fire department and they were on the way.
At the height of the fire, sparks ignited the roof of the Wanless lunch room and the roof of the Automotive Sales Co. across N. Market St. and the frame dwelling on the west side of the Davis building and a coal shed were burned. As the south wall of the garage fell, and it became apparent that all of the garage was doomed, the Burkitt Overland Co. occupying the building across West White Street on the south began moving out. All of the autos and the office equipment were hurried away to places of safety and household goods owned by the families of Mr. & Mrs. Bert Grace and Mrs. Daisy Bundren upstairs were loaded on truck and moved away.
On the east side of the street the homes were vacated also and the house hold goods were carried away as it appeared inevitable that some of those buildings would be destroyed. By persistent use of buckets of water and the use of a chemical extinguisher on the Marion fire truck the roof of the Wanless and Automotive Sales Co. were saved. The south building of the Davis garage was built in 1920 and the north building was added later after the first building was completed. It was said to be the finest garage building in Southern Illinois.
One of the first cars rescued from the burning garage was the Ford originally purchased by the late Capt. Brice Holland nearly 20 years ago. The car had been traded back to the Ford agency by Capt. Holland before his death and was on display at the Davis building. Lachlan McArthur planned to leave Marion on Sunday morning and to sail on Tuesday morning for Scotland for a two months vacation there. He also expected to visit his mother, who is now in poor health, but the fire on Sat. morning spoiled his plans. The house where he lived and which his family was to occupy while he was away, located back of the Davis Bros. garage at 104 W. White was burned. Mr. McArthur now plans to go to Chicago for the summer.
Willing hands saved all of his furniture except the cook stove.
(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us/ )