World's Largest Stove Destroyed – By Fire

The world's largest stove, a Michigan landmark, has been destroyed by fire.

The 15-ton stove, first displayed at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, was lost to a fire sparked by lightning on Saturday. Built by the Michigan Stove Company, it stood 25 feet high.

In 1998, the dismantled stove was pulled out of storage and reassembled at the fairgrounds near 8 mile.

"It's gone through so many evolutions, so many changes in the city and still survived all those years," Jan Kaulins, a photographer who sells prints of the stove and other Detroit landmarks, told The Associated Press. "It's multigenerational. Objects like that help bind history."

Stoves were big business in Detroit before the automotive industry took over the city's industrial sector.

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