Consolidated passengers on all lines which were affected by
the Wheeler theater fire will suffer come inconvenience for a day or two
longer. With their usual prodigality, they are complaining about changes which
the company has been compelled to make. Mr. Wight, treasurer for the
Consolidated, stated this morning that the current is not turned on because of
the danger it would engender. In the mass of wires surrounding the Wheeler, the
Western Union men are working, and the turning on of electricity would mean the
sacrifice of some life from an exposed live wire. Insulation is burned off,
leaving eighteen wires useless.
It will be late tomorrow, and possibly Monday, before the
current can be turned on and the cars run as usual. Monroe street cars are
making the circuit on Superior, instead of Summit street. The Cherry street
cars from West Toledo are running on
Cherry and Summit to the Monroe cross tracks. Passengers going up Broadway
change at the transfer office for the Broadway car, and at the Broadway bridge
transfer again for Bellevue park. The Bellevue park cars run to the bridge, to
make this connection.
Western avenue cars are cut in two, running to the
cross-tracks of the Wheelson-Spico company. The Dorr street cars stop at the
same place. East Broadway, Ironville, and Oak Street cars are operating as far
as the cross-tracks on Summit street. The Union Depot and Lagrange street cars,
whose usual route is through St. Clair street, now run through Lagrange,
Bancroft, Cherry, and Summit, to the depot.
Curiosity seekers still swarm around the corner, at the
opera house fire. They watch by the hour the efforts of the fire ladies to pull
down the menacing rear walls of the ill-fated Wheeler building. Ropes are
stretched around ruins on the opposite side of Monroe and St. Clair streets,
and stalwart guardians of the ruined peace are kept busy pushing the crowds
back. Several sections of the ruined brick walls were pulled down by the
firemen to-day. The gutted interior of
the burned building is piled high with debris. It will be a big job to clear
away the rubbish preparatory to rebuilding.
The energetic linemen of the electric light, telephone and
street car companies have the tangled net-work of wires picked up and removed.
Temporary repairs have been made, and street car service will be resumed on the
two barricaded streets as soon as the firemen finish their work of demolition.