Thomas A Wylie Fire
Cincinnati Enquirer, 8 December 1908, page 9
NEWPORT
Carelessness on the part of workman engaged in finishing a
two-story frame house on Fifteenth street, being erected for Thomas A Wylie, is
assigned as a cause for the total destruction of that structure by fire
yesterday afternoon. In addition the two story concrete block house, owned by
the heirs of the late Judge A S Berry, and occupied by Deputy Circuit Clerk Wm
Schwartz, was badly gutted.
A fire had been built in one of the unfinished grates of the Wylie house and it is thought that this fire becoming too hot for the unfinished part of the house set fire to the rafters and wood work. When the blaze was first discovered, it had worked its way to a point near the roof. A telephone message was sent to the Newport Fire Department and the firemen went out on a still alarm.
Because of the fact that the houses are located on a hill back of the Wiedemann malt house, a lack of water pressure prevented the firemen from doing effective work and they were practically compelled to stand and watch the Wylie house burn to the ground.
The loss on Wylie's house is total and estimated at $1000, fully covered by insurance. The loss on the house occupied by Schwartz will amount to at least $500. The latter saved most of his household god which were insured for $600.