Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

Three Thousand Broiled Hogs.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer, May 12.

The fire that broke out yesterday morning in the hog-pens attached to the distillery of J. W. Gaff & Co. proves to be quite as serious as announced in the brief account in yesterday morning’s Enquirer.
The pens in question were situated on the western bank of Mill Creek, just north of Sixth street bridge, in the twenty-first Ward. They were very extensive, covering several acres, and were built upon piles to protect the stock from high water, were roofed in, and were of substantial build. Upon Tuesday night they contained 4,200 hogs, owned by Messars. Fort, Sadler & Co., and W. T. Bailey., which were in the process of fattening on the refuse of the adjacent distillery.
On Wednesday morning, at about a quarter of 8 o’clock, an alarm of fire was turned in from box 64, corner of Gest and Harriet. The engines, on the first alarm for “sixty-four,” hurried to the spot indicated by that signal, and then, discovering the fire to be beyond reach, in the mud, returned to their houses, the “twos” alone thundering down Sixth street, and, crossing the bridge till within three hundred yards of the fire. Whence it was found impossible to do effective service [water being scarce] and the pens inaccessible in a direct line,
Our reporter’s first view of the conflagration was from the corner of Gest street and creek, from which the loud and terrified grunting of thousands of hogs could be distinctly heard. While hurrying down Sixth street, and thence across the bridge, the squealing grew louder and louder, and at length conveyed the truth that a large number of brutes were perishing in agony. The scene, after arriving upon the ground, he describes as one of unmixed grandeur-the great columns of flame, now fed by the grease from living fuel in some of the pens, shooting upward thousands of feet, and thence rolling off Eastward in great masses of black smoke.
The outcry of the frightened droves, as they crowded one on top of another into the corners of the pens remotest from the fire, until its rapid approach first scorched and then consumed them, awed the spectators, who stood looking helplessly on, even more than the fiery spectacle. Meanwhile every effort was being made by those familiar with the pens and by the firemen to save a portion of the hogs, the greater proportion, it being apparent at a glance, being hopelessly cut off, by the flames having originated [undoubtedly from incendiarism, it is said,] at the entrances on the west, and sweeping, with the wind, to the eastern ends.
As it was, but a little over a thousand of the animals were gotten out in all, and during the fire, which continued to rage for nearly two hours, over three thousand were literally broiled alive. Nothing remained yesterday of the 3,000 porkers but a huge mass of burning flesh and bones, from which there rose a stench anything but appetizing.
The loss on hogs is estimated at about $75,000.