Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-08-23
A1oms m ASHES.
The Great Fire that Completely Destroyed
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The Great Fire that Completely Destroyed
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Yesterdays REGISTER contained brief
account Of the destructive FIRE at Sarahs-
vile, town of about 300 inhabitants in
Noble county Ohio Adetailed account was
impossible, at that time, as no one in the town
was capable of sending information. The
fire started in small frame building not
far south of the center Of the village, and
before itwas discovered the flames had
sprung up and Tapped another building near
by. There was no water works and no way
whatever for the people to control it except
BY the use of water in buckets carried from
the wells, and this supply was very meagre,
but if there had been more water the efforts
of the bucket brigade would not have gone
far toward ichecking the destructive course
of the fiery element The buildings were
all dry, and burned almost like powder, and
a stiff breeze from the south famed the
flames into fury that made the willing
workers stand back and let the fire proceed.
1t kept burning from O'Clock on Wednes-
day afternoon until Thursday morning, and
swept away thirty-two houses, seventeen of
which were dwellings, three stores, two
hotels and one school house, leaving about
half of the population homeless and house
less Out of the seventeen dwellings de-
stroyed, ten of them belonged to widows
who have families to support and only two
of them are able to rebuild. The houses are
nearly all completely burned, and this is true
of the three stores, two drug and one dry
goods, and the only remaining store in the
town, dry goods store, suffered loss OF
about $4,000. The entire central
portion of the village is destroyed, and
many of the residents, in the excitement
and their wild endeavors to stay the pro-
cress eff the destroying element, forgot
their own homes until it was too late, and
their furniture and all of their household
goods were burned with the buildings,
thus leaving many persons in the most
destitute circumstances. The entire loss
will reach in the neighborhood Of $4,000
and the total amount OF all the insurance
held among those who were burned out does
not exceed $1,000. The fire when at its
worst, about dark, lit up the heavens to
Sucn an extent THAT IHe IdTuleIS anu tucI
tamihes for miles around were alarmed, and
it attracted many of them to the scene Of
disaster; and, though willing to lend help.
ing hand, they were powerless to render any
material aid in the way of checking the
flames. Near morning the most thickly
settled part of the village was in ashes, the
fire had spent its force, and the scatter
ing houses that still stood were not
near enough to be caught. The scene on
the streets beggsrs description. Men, wo-
men and children wrung their hands with
grief and excitement and the air was filled
with most pitiable lamentations from aged
widows and their families, who stood help
lessly by and saw their homes go up in fire
and smoke. Those who were fortunate to
escape threw open their homes to the unfor-
tunate, but many of them could not be CON-
torted, and walked the streets all night cry
ing: What shall we do?' No one seems
to know how the fire originated, unless from
a defective fue, which theory is generally
accepted. Most of this account is taken
IRON the Independent of Bellaire.