20 TRUCKS BURNED IN FIRE AT BREWERY

The New York Times
December 12, 1922

Brick Stable in Ebling Plant Destroyed With Stock of Saloon Fixtures.

MAIN BUILDINGS SAVED

Church and School Menaced Before Blaze is Put Out—Damage $100,000.

Fire, which threatened to destroy the large Bronx plant of the Ebling Brewing Company in St. Ann's Avenue yesterday morning, was confined to the two-story red brick stable, which was wrecked. The damage is estimated at $100,000.

Starting, it is believed, in the hay and fodder loft of the old stable building, the flames spread quickly and sent up columns of dense smoke which clouded the section for many blocks. Herman Mehlhop, superintendent of the stable, which had been used as a warehouse in recent years, turned in the first alarm, and as the rest of the plant was threatened, two more alarms were sent in and Fire Chief Kenlon took charge of the situation.

Twenty automobile trucks and barroom fixtures of pre-Volstead days were destroyed. The fire spread to window sills of the old ale building, used for the manufacture of syrup, but made no headway in the main plant. For a time it was feared that the St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church and rectory in 158th Street and the Parochial School in Brook Avenue would be burned.

William Ebling, President of the company; Louis M. Ebling, Vice President, and Theodore Haebler, Secretary and Treasurer, watched the building burn. When the flames made their greatest progress in the stable William Ebling said he feared the entire plant would go.