The Portland daily press., 1898-12-31
FROM BOX "a.
One Alarm was Intended But Three
Alarms Rang In.

sharply aIU5r announcer, IEoiu po1 - WAioA
| is located in Railroad Square, opposite
the West End hotel, brought every piece
of fire apparatus in the city with the e4-
ception of the fire boat, to the spot, to-
gether with a large per centage OF the In
hahitants of Portland. The FIRE which
caused this great excitement amounted
to very little in itself, but the dashing
of engines and hose wagons through the
streets from all quarters. the changing OF
BELLS the cries of the excited men and
women who thronged into Congress
street from every direction and took up
their march towards the West End, the
jamming of peopleson the street cars with
| the attendant crowding and pushing by
those outside the cars who wanted to
get inside, all combined to make the eve
ming very lively one for many people.
When the second alarm from box "a
came in everyone believed of course that
either the West End hotel or some Of the
adjacent property of the Maine Central
railroad was abIaze and of course all who
could go started for the West End of the
city to see the fire. The joke of it was,
|
rounds from box "a which followed were
due to the fact that the box itself was
out of order and failed to catch after the
FIRST round and in consequence kept on
ringing until it had run down.
The fire for which box "A was pulled
was in two-story wooden building some
distance beyond the Maine Central tracks
/ hon, f7i-a0 ra6
the fire was bursting through the win
dows of the front room on the second floor
and before the department. got stream
upon 1t the blaze had worked its way
through the entire second floor and was
threatening the houses on either side. 1t
i did not take long for the department. to
subdue the blaze when they finally got
to work and though the second floor was
completely burned out and the upper
part of the building badly damaged,
the fire was wholly confined to the upper
story and the lower floor was only in
jured by water.
| The building is owned by Mr.. John W.
Deering, the grocer, who has 500 insur-
ance placed through the agency of Prem
tiss Loring Il Co. : The second floor was
occupied by Thomas Jones, the colored
porter of the West End hotel, who occu-
pied two rooms. The lower street floor
was occupied by Quong Wah's Chinese
| laundry.
/ Just before the fire was discovered
Patrolman John Heating saw Mrs. Jones
with a bundle under her arm crossing the
! Maine Central tracks on her way up
town. She had evidently left the house
but few minutes before. Shortly after
she had passed the officer man came
running into Railroad Square shouting
| fire and made desperate attempt to pull
in an alarm from the police signal box.
Officer Charles Wakefield was nearer the
fire alarm box than was Officer Keating,
and Wakefield pulled in the alarm. He
left man by the box and FASTENED to
the fire. No one touched the box after
Officer Wakefield left it, SO the man who
was left in charge says, but when one
round had been rung in the box kept on
going until it had run itself out
The lone Chinaman in the lower part of
the building was almost paralyzed with
fear, but managed by dint of assistance
afforded him by some Of the men who
lquickly gathered to get the greater part
of his belongings and his laundry out
into the street where he placed himself
as guard over it and tried to tell the
crowd how it all happened in pure Chi
nese He had many auditors. but few at
tempted to carry on the conversation with
him in his own language which was the
only language he could talk.
When the firemen had subdued the
blaze discovery was made of little
pug dog in one OF Mr.. Jones's rooms
with his toes turned up skyward and
some of his hair singed. 1t is not un
likely that Mrs. Jones left this dog locked
in the house when she went out a few
minutes before the fire and that he in
same way overturned lamp, thus caus-
| ing the blaze. Up to ten o'clock last
night Mrs. Jones had not been found by
the police who were looking for her to
obtain her story. Mr.. Jones told po-
liceman that he had $1,000 insurance on
the furniture in these two rooms, but
the PRESS reporter could not find the
| luttu 50 DIS 10 verify btle Ststtotueut.
| Mr.. behring's loss will probably be COW
cred by the insurance, and if Mr.. Jones
has $1,000 insurance, his loss is fully COW
cred.
| The run of Engine from Munjoy Hill
in response to the third alarm, as they
supposed. was made in good time. On
the way down Congress street, the off
| horse threw shoe and in going back up
on to the hill, the driver of this engine
detached this horse from the engine and
sent him off to be shod. while the en-.
CINE waited for the animal to be re
turned. 1t was SO slippery on Congress
street that the driver of Engine did
not deem it advisable to try and get up
the long hill until the lost shoe had been
replaced.
| Last nights fire was the 25th straight
blaze for the month of December with
i dow RI hoor froY,, bafora tho voqY-