Morning journal and courier., 1892-07-22
THE BIG FIRE AT r1oosUp.

The Most Destructive I'm Its History
Started I'm a Hay Lon-The Bushes.
Center of the Village Destroyed -
| Three Acres Burned Over-Losa
About Thirty Thousand Dollars.
MoosUP, Conn, July 21.-The principal
manufacturing center in Plain6eld town
ship and village of over 1000 inhabitants
was visited by the most destructive con-
fagration in its history this morning, the
business center of the village, including
| the hotel, railroad station and freight
house and six other buildings, including
two dwellings, being entirely destroyed.
The FIRE originated in the hay loft of the
hotel stable and was probably due to spon-
taneous combustion, the fact that new hay
Is now being stored in the barns lending a
plausible color to that theory. The flames
were discovered soon after 8 o'clock and
quickly spread to the hotel. Hills block,
in which were located j. G. Miller & Co.,
dealers in dry goods and groceries,
G.. M. Denneson & Son, undertakers
and furniture dealers, and Alfred Hyde's
market, next caught FIRE. The two-story
block also owned by Hill and occupied by
G. D. Titus as a restaurant and dwelling
speedily followed, and the whole triangu-
lar space between the New York and New
England road were in a short time blaz-
ing mass of fire, against which the villages
primitive means of fighting the fiery ele-
ment availed nothing. Willing hands lent
what assistance they could during the brief
time allowed in removing goods from the
burning buildings, but comparatively little
was saved. The heat from the burning
pile within the triangle soon set the pas
senger station across from the hotel ablaze.
The barn and two buildings owned by
Samuel Green on the west side of Prospect
street caught about the same time despite
the efforts of the men who kept thoee
buildings wet by means of pals and buck
cts. The occupants of the Green tene-
ments succeeded in saving the greater por-
ton of their household effects, and the
horses, sixteen in number, in the hotel
stable and Green's barn were also removed
uninjured. From the passenger station |
the fire spread by way of the platforms to
the freight house on the opposite side of |
the track. In the latter building were |
twenty bales of cotton, valued at $50 per |
bale, all but one of which were saved. The |
east-bound freight train, the west-bound |
passenger train due at Moosup at 1923,
and the east-beund passenger train were
stalled on either side of the burning
station for upwards of an hour
awaiting the destruction of the build
ings before proceeding. At o'clock there
was nothing left but the smouldering
debris which filled the cellars on which
nine buildings had stood in the morning
and where $50, 900 worth of property had
gone up in smoke. The burned district
covers about three acres. The hotel, which
was owned by Mr.. Jones of New London,
was worth about $4,000. Sam uel J. King,
the lessee of the hotel, estimates his loss
on stock and furniture at 81, 500. Partial
~ insured. J. G. Miller & Co.'s loss is
81, 900. Insured for $4,000. New York
and New England railroad, loss 50, 800.
Alfred Hyde, loss $500, insured 5000;
8. NJ. Dennison & Son, loss 81, 900, in
,ured $4,000; S. P. Green's loss will ap-
proximate 900. G. D. Titus, who oc-
,upied one of the Hill blocks, was visiting
1t Worcester, Mass, and no figures of his
oss or insurance could be obtained. The
risks on the property destroyed were held
principally by companies represented by
Sidney Croffert of Dsnielsonville and E.E.
rillinghast of Plainfeld, there being no
lgency in Moosup