DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.

Chas. Behlen & Co.'s Carriage Manufactory Destroyed---Loss About $8,000.

At about a quarter after 2 o'clock this morning an alarm was sounded from box 92, corner of Walnut and Liberty streets, followed in about three minutes by a second alarm, calling the Fire Department to what threatened to be a destructive conflagration in the carriage factory of Chas. Behlen & Co., southwest corner of Vine and Mary streets. The fire originated in the second story of the building, which is five stories in height, and quickly spread throughout the entire building. Through the efforts of the firemen the fire was brought under control by 3 o'clock.

Behlen & Co. were carrying stored in the building a large stock of finished buggies and wagons, and their loss can not be far from $5,000 or $6,000 on stock, with a loss on the building of perhaps $2,500.

The insurance, mostly in Cincinnati companies, was $14,000, of which $9,000 was on stock, the balance on the building.

The fire caught in the second story on the north side, near where a stove used for heating glue and varnish, was situated. It caught about 8 o'clock in the evening, near the same place, but was extinguished, breaking out again at half past 1. Finished stock was stored on all the floors but the fifth, where varnish and wheels was stored. Nothing was saved from the building but a couple of barouches and few buggy wheels. The flames spread from the second floor to the roof, and the entire contents of those floors must be almost a total loss.

Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Cincinnati, OH 23 Apr 1879
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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!