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       #Post#: 316--------------------------------------------------
       [FDHistory] It happened this day in Upper Dauphin County
       By: Diable Fire Date: May 2, 2011, 5:21 pm
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       76 years ago...
       1935: A devastating fire wiped out one of Lykens possible
       factory buildings on Friday evening, May 2, 1935, when the large
       stone block and frame building owned by the Deppen Estate was
       destroyed. The alarm was sounded at 9 o'clock, and in forty five
       minutes, the factory building was a skeleton of smoking embers.
       The factory was built locally at a cost of $8,000 to house the
       Deppen Pretzel Company. It had been vacant for a period of
       years, used only as a storage place for machinery, cars, and
       show cases. It had been rented, however, the week before the
       fire by the Lykens Manufacturing Company as a storage place for
       manufactured shirts awaiting shipment. That Wednesday, the
       company had moved in several large packing cases filled with
       prepared shirts for storage. The shirts were valued at $2,500.
       They were destroyed along with the factory. Machinery of equal
       value were also stored there, bringing the total loss to $12,500
       for the damage of the fire. The Deppen Plant was owned by the
       estate, who was locally represented by Mr. T.R. Edris, of the
       Uhler Drug Store on Market Street. He had managed the pretzel
       factory during its manufacturing. The shirt loss, coming under
       the Lykens Garment Company was represented by Mr. John Jackson,
       manager of the local Garment Plant. The rapidity with which the
       plant was destroyed made it necessary to send out a third alarm,
       summoning Wiconisco and added firemen to the scene. The Hose
       Company could do little but to confine the blaze to the building
       and prevent it from spreading to dwellings and nearby woods. The
       collapse of the brick chimney narrowly missed some of the
       firefighters as it loosened and gave way from the building
       proper. Authorities that made an investigation of the fire
       stated that the factory was not covered by insurance, and that,
       in their opinion, the cause of the fire was unknown.
       Jesse Shutt
       Upper Dauphin County Fire Historian
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