Whiskey Fire Destroys Ships and Property

International Religious Liberty Association · Chicago, Illinois · Jul 5, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 26.

Whiskey Fire Destroys Ships and Property

A pyramid of whiskey in barrels on the steamship piers at Hoboken, N. J., was responsible on Saturday last for the loss of several hundred lives and the destruction of $10,000,000 worth of property, including several ocean liners, by fire. The catastrophe began with an insignificant blaze in a cotton bale, which was communicated to the whiskey pile, and the resulting explosion spread the flames over a vast area with the most incredible rapidity. In any case this whiskey pyramid would have caused the loss of a number of lives and of considerable property before it was all disposed of, but on this occasion an appalling penalty was paid for the manufacture and intended use of this noxious mixture that has ever been so great an enemy to mankind.