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125 years ago in 1898, headlines and story taken directly from the Youngstown Vindicator:
"Barn burned. Henry Wick's fine stable was totally destroyed this morning. The horses were saved. Three fine carriages also secured, but all else went up in smoke.
"Fire totally destroyed the barn in the rear of the residence of Henry Wick, on Wick Avenue, shortly after 4 o'clock on Monday morning. All of Mr. Wick's fine horses, three of his best carriages, and some harness were saved, but most of the contents of the barn were destroyed.
"It was exactly 5:30 o'clock when the alarm was sent into Central Department, but when they arrived the entire rear of the building was a mass of flames. A few minutes before, the fire was discovered breaking out in the rear of the barn and at a point above the floor of the haw loft.
"The men employed at the barn were soon astir and they hustled to get the horses out and succeeded in doing so, only one of the horses being in any way injured and that was only slightly by having the skin on its hind leg burned.
"The horses were turned loose from the barn and they immediately scampered away and were captured several hours later in different parts of the city.
"After getting the horses out, attention was given to the carriages and a fancy brake, a trap and a closed carriage were saved. Everything else in the barn at the time went up in flames or was so badly damaged as to render it useless.
"The fire gained rapid headway and the department was able to do little aside from saving adjoining property, the barns of Henry Siegfried and Dan Reeble, being a few feet away.
"After the fire, Chief Moore complained bitterly of the water pressure. He said the firemen were unable to get a decent stream on the building. He was compelled in order to get two streams of water on the fire to lay of 1,400 feet of hose and he said by the time the water was forced through all that hose, there was little pressure to go against the fire.
"The chief said a stream to put out a blaze of the character of this morning's fire must do something more than sprinkle it. He said that the same difficulty which confronted them at the Wells fire was met this morning and until the people of Wick Avenue demanded better fire protection, it would be almost impossible to save buildings with the facilitates now at hand.
"This complaint should be looked into by the waterworks authorities and if well founded some remedy devised.
"The barn while partly standing, is a total loss, it being completely gutted by the blaze.
"Mr. Wick himself was not at home at the time, he having gone to Bass Lake on Saturday night. Mr. Wick was asked Monday noon by a Vindicator reporter as to what he estimated the loss and he said he was as yet unable to say. He made no estimate.
"The barn was covered by insurance but to just what extent, Mr. Wick was unable to state at this time."
-- Compiled from the Youngstown Vindicator by Traci Manning, MVHS curator of education.