Daily Kennebec journal., 1896-01-30
FIRE AT LEWISTON.
R. c. Pingree & Co.'S Big Wood
Working Plant Burned,
Hottest Fire City Ever Had Acre
Burned Over In An Hour.
The Loss Will Be Very Heavy With Only Partial
Insurance.

Lewiston, Jan. 29.--At Si5 an alarm
of fire was sounded, which was immedi.
ately followed by second alarm, calling
out the full departments of both Lewiston
and Auburn.
The fire proceeded from the paint shop
OF the mammoth lumber working mills OF
H. L. Pingree & Co, the property occupy
mig the big territory from the Maine Cen
tral railroad on the cast to the main canal
on the west, and from Cross canal by the
Bates mill on the south, Main street on
the north, except on the west OF lots on
Milan street.
The fire caught in the paint in the line
Of buildings on the railroad. 1t quickly
extended west burning the shaving and
boiler house, and in the south, taking In
the moulding shop. This line Of build
ings was nearly 800 feet long
Then the fire worked entirely up the
cross canal, taking in the job shop, the
turning and planning mills and the car
penter shop. These buildings were 150
feet on the canal and ran northerly nearly
200 feet.
A narrow passage way separated these
buildings from the big dry house, 100 by
40 feet, two and one-half stories high
which oAught last.
This building was full of valuable lum
,ber Of all kinds, rsnging from spruce fin
sh to the flnesSwoods and in finishing.
" hsn stock was taken last, an employe
says,' this building contained over 200, 600
feet of lumber.
All three buildings were burned fat
and their valuable machinery, fine lum-
Der, finished and unfinished stock are
burned
Among the furniture burned, are the
finishiDgs for Biddeford's new city build
ing counters, desks and shelving for one
of the Portland banks. furnishings for a
Portland drug store, and large quantity
of mouldings. stair work, mouldings and
other manufactures.
1t was an extremely hot fire. the worst
ever seen in Lewiston, and in an hour
had consumed an acre of buildings
The Bates mill was separated from the
burning only by the cross canal. The
mill had it's efficient fire department at
work, and with its own lines of hose com
pletcly protected tbs end Of the mill
All of Pingree * Cos buildings con-
tanned valuable lumber and material At
present the firm cannot estimate the loss
Lumbermen estimate that the loss will
reach $50, 600 to 800, 900. The insurance
will cover but small portion Of the heavy
loss. There were 40 to so men employed,
nearly all of whom lost their tools
A ladder against one building broke,
causing two firemen 10 fall but they We're
not seriously hurt. When the big iron
chimney fell there were several people in
cange, but they were saved by pair of
ladders.
The Maine Central moved their cars
down the track to places of safety. The
ears We're run out by hand, it being SO hot
that the engine could not get up A
stream on the round house saved it from
destruction.
All the fire apparatus of the two cities
was III use, and many hydrant streams
We're put on. The reservoir of the city
water works was nearly full, and two
pumps at the station supplied the un-
usual drain on the water supply and in
creased the quantity in the reservoir
The fire is in a bad district, in conse-
quence of the close proximity of large
tenement blocks, ana naturally caused
much excitement The fire. departments
were promptly at the fire and had the fire
under control in an unusually short time,
considering the inilammablc nature Of the
buildings and their contents
The second of the Pingree buildings
and large piles Of lumber in the yard were
saved.