Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-01-30

The GREAT FIRE IN MILFoRD.-W c copy
from the Milford Journal the following incidents
connected with the recent fire in that town
Mr.. j. A. Waller, who had a barber shop over
S. d. Angels store, but who resided over the
store of r. L. Darling, was early awakened by
the alarm OF fire, and he fastened, without even
stopping to puton his boots, TO his shop, in Or
der to rescue a man who was sleeping there.
Hearing also knocking on a door in another
part of the building, he ran thither and burst
open the door, where he found five women in
imminent danger of sutfocation by the advancing
fire. Among the number was Mrs Newton,
whose child was saved. Mr.. Waller saw Mrs.
Newton 90 back towards her room, far in the
rear of the old Walker building, and he called
on her to stop, but she paid no heed to his cries,
evidently being DESTROYS of saving something
from her room. He rushed after her, but was
met, at one of the intervening passages, by a
rush of smoke which nearly sutiocated him, and
caused him to fall to the floor. He crawled
back to a window, which he blrst open, and
gathered some snow in his hands, with which
to protect himself if possible, and again at
tempted TO pass through to where Mrs. Newton
was, in order to save her He was again struck
down by the rushing smoke and flames, and
was found in an insensible condition by others
and dragged out, just as the floor and roof were
falling. The heroism of this man deserves more
than this mere public mention. His narrative
ton.
Mr.. S. A. Fisher was awakened by the smoke
in his room. He had barely time TO rescue his
wife and child, and, all in their night clothes,
fee with them from the building, before the
smoke became too dense for breathing.
An Irishman named Brannon, living on Water
street, took phial of strychnine from the ruins
of the drug store of MesSrS. Drury & Rice, and
carried it home Giving it to his wife, but prob
ably not knowing the dangerous character of
the article, he nevertheless cautioned her to be
careful of il. The woman either misunderstood
him or failed to hear his caution, and she placed
the phia on a table within reach OF little child
and went about her work. The child took the
phial, uncorked it and gave some Of the stryeh-
nine to an infant and took some himself. The
infant died in a very short time and the older
child lived four or five hours only.
Accidents happened to four men connected
with the hook and ladder company. George
Rose had an ankle severely sprained. S. Desau-
tell, while working around one of the ladders,
was wounded in the right leg by ladder spike;
the wound is a severe and painful one. John
Coffee stepped upon nail, which pierced
through his foot; and George Saul had a narrow
escape from instant death by the falling of a
part of the Alhambra block One of his arms
was badly bruised.
Mr.. Oxen Lothrop, who works in Elbridge
Mann's boot shop, slipped upon the icy side
walk and, falling, broke both bones of his right
leg below the knee. Mr. Lothrop had been
working all the morning, assisting in removing
goods. His present helpless condition entities
him to sympathy and assistance.
For several hours during the progress of the
fire it seemed almost certain that the elegant
house of Mr.. w. H. Chamberlain would lie
burned, and the most heroic efforts were made
and persisted in by firemen and friends to save
it. Their eXertions were crowned with success,
and the saving of that building no doubt pre-
vented the spread of the fire among the resi-
dences on jefferson street. Two men-James
Donovan and Joseph Wentworth-came near
meeting with bad if not fatal accidents, while at
work on the roof of the menaced house. As fast
as the water fell upon the shingles it seemed to
freeze, until it made a heavy coating of ice.
Both these men slipped and came down towards
the caves, only saving themselves by mere
chances. Other men, in working there, ran
very narrow risks. The saving of the building
was due in great part to the spreading of
carpets over the projection of the roof, and the
steady and hard 6ght maintained for hours
against the fire, under the immediate direction
Of Assistant Engineer Thurber
Thus, for the second time, Milford has been
visited by an awful conhagration, the former oc-
curing about fifteen years ago, and burning the
Union block and other buildings down TO the
corner Of Spruce street. The weather on that
occasion, was intensely cold-perhaps colder
than on this. Let us hope that from the ashes
of this fire shall arise structures doing credit to
the largest hberality and public spirit of our