Hamlin, TX cotton mill fire, Feb 1939

Hamlin Cotton Mill Scene Of Two-Hour Blaze

HAMLIN, Feb. 27. - (Spl.) - Flames fanned by a raging wind did undetermined damage tonight to proeprty of the Hamlin Cotton Oil mill, a mile and a half east of here.

Witnesses said the blaze, discovered about 8 o'clock, destroyed a storehouse, filled either will cottonseed meal or hulls. Hamlin firemen battled nearly two hours before bringing the fire under control.

Officials refused to estimate the loss or speculate on origin of the flames pending a daylight check Tuesday.

It appeared there was no damage to machinery, except possibly to a conveyor connecting the razed building with the main plant, a brick structure about 30 yards distant.

Because the fire also burned deep in a mound of cottonseed hulls, the stiff wind made efforts to extinguish the blaze doubly difficult. Showers of sparks several times ignited a hull storage house immediately east of that destroyed and firemen were driven out repeatedly by the heat.

Observers said had the second store houe been at the opposite end all efforts to save it would have been futile. The building destroyed was 60 or 70 feet long and about 50 feet wide.

At least two large oil reservoirs, believed filled with linseed oil, and the mill's office also were saved.

The Abilene Reporter News, Abilene, TX 28 Feb 1939
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!