Ideal (Barge), fire, 4 Jul 1910

STUBBORN FIRE SWEEPS BLACK ROCK WATERFRONT.
      Buffalo's fire fighting force celebrated yesterday by putting in one of the hardest days of steady, grinding work in the history of the department. Fifty alarms tapped in on the gongs of the fire stations between 9 o'clock in the morning and 11:30 last night, leaving the men and horses of the department utterly exhausted. While only one of the fires really amounted to anything, all of them meant a run and a few minutes' work. The big one ate up the excursion pier at the foot of Amherst Street, three small steamers and several buildings. Two alarms were sounded, calling to the blaze the major portion of the fire companies on the Upper West Side.
      It was a quick blaze but the firemen were alert and the fact that the flames did not sweep over a greater area may be credited to the fast work of the fire fighters. Starting in Humphrey & Son's ice-storage house, it swept quickly to a grist mill owned by the same firm, and, when Battalion Chief Petzing, with several engines and truck companies arrived, the flames had communicated to the excursion pier and were menacing the entire colony of boat houses and waterfront saloons. Chief Petzing promptly sent a second alarm, bringing to the fire Assistant Chief Murphy and reinforcements.
      LICKS UP SALOON.
From the grist mill the fire leaped to the saloon of Henry Bourg, destroying it completely. Then a cottage occupied by George Moon at 3 Amherst Street ignited. It was quickly wiped out. The barge IDEAL, moored in a slip beside the excursion docks, was then destroyed, as were the offices and sheds of Fix Brothers. The steamer FLORENCE T., moored a little north of the IDEAL, was soon in flames, and was destroyed with the steamer ALICE The fireboat HUTCHISON, stationed at the foot of Genesee Street, had steamed down the river and arrived just in time to head off the flames as the destruction of the fleet of river craft began. Her powerful streams stopped the spread of the fire and the fight from that time was left to the firemen on shore.
      The first alarm was sounded a few minutes after noon and it was two hours later before the firemen had the flames completely drowned out. The police estimate the loss at a trifle more than $20,000, only a portion covered by insurance. The fire is thought to have been caused by a lighted fire-cracker thrown against the ice-house by someone in one of the excursion parties that pulled away from the Amherst Street pier during the morning.
      Buffalo Evening News
      July 5, 1910


[ NOTE - The barge IDEAL, of Buffalo is still listed in the 1911 Merchant Vessels List]