The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-09-16
A FIRE INQUEST.
The Aldermen Investigate Sunday
Nights Fire.

Nights Fire.
Many Witnesses Examined and Two
Hours Taken Up in Listening to Testi-
mony.
The board of Mayor and Aldermen held
tire inquest yesterday afternoon in &C.
cordance with the provisions of the law
passed by the legislature at it's last ses-
sion. There were present besides the
Mayor, Aldermen Rounds Kehoe, Pagan
and Mcdonald. A little while after the
inquest was opened, Alderman Kehoe
withdrew from the room and the invest
igation proceeded with only three alder
men and the mayor present. The result
of the inquest was neither very startling
or interesting, and the city fathers know
about as much concerning the cause of the
fire now as they did before. All of the
witnesses were sworn.by Clerk Dyer be-
fore they were examined and the invest
igation took up about two hours. City
Solicitor Morrill, twas present and quest
toned the witnesses.
yesterday afternoon occurred Sunday
night at 10 O'Clock in the fruit store of
George Hunt on Custom house wharf.
Officer Hans P. Smith was the first
witness. His beat is on the upper part
of Fore street. He, together with Officer
White, discovered the fire on Custom
house wharf at six minutes past ten
O'Clock Sunday night.
Eben Jordan is a fireman for the. Casco
Bay Steamboat company. He was stand
ing on Commercial street at the head of
Custom house dock with friend, when
he saw smoke about George Hunt
place. He had formerly boardeds.at George
O'Clock he had been in Hunts store and
had told him to keep the place open I'M
til he came back But he did not go back.
The fire when he first saw it, seemed to
be coming out of the roof of the building
on the back side. On closer investigation
the doors and windows of the place
seemed to be locked. No one slept in the
building as far as he knew.
Deputy Marshal Sterling testified that
he investigated the fire in company with
the chief of the fire department.. The
fire had caught behind the counter in
the room of what had been the gentle
mems waiting room of the old ferry
house. The smoke was very thick.
Some one told the deputy that there was
a woman up stairs. He and an officer
forced their way through the smoke up
stairs and found bed which was be-
| hind the cook room and was unoccupied.
The deputy saw Mr.. Hunt, the proprie-
tor of the store. Hunt told him he had
been talking with a member of the cut
ter's crew some 25 minutes before the fire
broke out. Hunt said he had gone back
to his store at that time to get bag of
silver which was up stairs. Hunt at
that time had bag of silver in his
pocket when he was talking to the depu-
ty.
In reply to question by Alderman
Kehoe of whether or not he had seen any
thing suspicious about the fire, the depu-
ty said he had The whole fire was sus-
picious to his mind. The deputy said he
believed the tire was of incendia1y
origin. In reply to question of Alder
man Rounds the deputy said 1t looked
as if a lot of paper and rubbish beneath
the counter had been the place where the
fire started.
In reply to Alderman McDonald's cues
tion the deputy said the bed up stairs
had been slept in, but whether or not
| it was occupied that night he could not
tell.
The deputy said in his Judgment the
fire had been in progress 20 minutes be-
fore it was discovered. This Judgment
was based on the damsge the fire had
done, as all the woodwork inside the
room had been burned over. The wit
| ness described the location of the rooms
up stairs. There were two staircases
leading up to the upper story. One went
| from one side OF the shop and the other
from the interior of the shop.
Lucy Lane, the next witness, had been
employed by Mr.. Hunt for IA months
| She was at the shop of Mr.. Hunt until
half past eight o'clock ON Sunday night.
Mr. Hunt had been up stairs before he
loft the store and soon after he went out
| the witness and his sister also went out.
Mr.. Hunt makes a practice of locking
the door at the foot of the stair case and
| after Mr.. Hunt went home that night
neither the witness OF her sister went
down stairs. Witness said she had put
bag of silver amounting to $500 in the
trunk up stairs and in this trunk was
also some money belonging to the wit
ness. When Mr.. Hunt was up stairs af-
ter leaving the store he had not asked for
the money and the witness thought Mr.
Hunt had forgotten it, The bed had been
made up in. the morning of Sunday
Neither the witness or her sister slept at
the place that night. Sometimes Mr.
Hunt slept there and it was the witness
duty to make up the bed. In the after.
noon she had laid down on the bed for
awhile and did not think she had made
it up again.
Alderman Rounds took the cross ex-