The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-03-05
FOURTH FIRE.


ton for frequent fires. The fourth |
this week occurred on Thursday even
ing at 26 Sibley street, where last
Sunday afternoons blaze occurred.
A little after seven O'Clock the fire
department was summoned by an
alarm from box "a at the corner of
Barre and Sibley streets and before
the department could arrive, the sur
rounding, country was brightly illu-
minated by the blazing building.
The house is owned by Phineas A.
Kemp and is occupied by Mrs. e. j.
Ennis and her three little children,
and Miss Brown who was employed
by Mrs. Ennis as housekeeper during
her illness.
Fritz Metzler was really the first
one to discover the fire. While visit
ing the house few moments before
the alarm was rung in he asked Miss
Brown what was burning as he could
smell fire. She became alarmed and
told him to go upstairs and get the
little Ennis girl, who was abed and
asleep. In trying to find the child's
the door leading to the attic and saw
it was in flames. He rushed down
stairs and informed Miss Brown and
both returned upstairs and rescued the
little girl.
Miss Brown then rushed out on the
piazza and reused the neighborhood
with her cries. Mr.. Metzler ran to
box 80 at the corner of Sibley and Sa-
bin streets to ring in an alarm but the
mechanism failed to work.
w. A. Lord, who resides just this
side of the Ennis house, heard Miss
Browns cries and came, out on the
piazza just in time to see the flames
break through the roof. He called to
the men on the Seminary hill car,
which had just passed and was wait
ing at the foot of the hill, to ring in
an alarm and Daniel Sexton did so.
The motorman and conductor of the
car said later that when they passed
the house they saw no flames.
Mrs. Ennis and her two little girls,
one of them in bed with her, were
taken in their night clothes to the
, home of Mr.. Lord. 1t was but few
moments after the fire was discovered
when the entire interior and roof of
the building was in flames and so
stubborn was the fire that "all OUT
was not rung in until s 80.
Most of the household effects were
saved but were badly damaged. Miss
and Mrs. Ennis lost a great deal of
clothing. This property was not COW
cred by insurance but the building is
insured in the Union Mutual for $1,000.
1t appeared that the water thrown
upon the fire only aggravated it to
burn more briskly for when the flames
were subdued in one quarter they
would break out in another more fierce
ly and the interior was raging fur
mace.
The firemen would cut into the
building at a certain point and it APP
peared that this was what some SUM-
bering blaze was waiting for as the
fire would start up with renewed Wig
or from the draft thus given.
Several hundreds of people gathered
about the burning building and al
though they kept at distance they
were from time to time wet down as
it appeared, most needlessly, by the
fremen who were in charge of the
hose.
The firemen were severely CRITICS.
ed for this and for other omissions of
carefulness in doing their work.
Many representative citizens express
ed the opinion that this occasion fur
nished an apt illustration of the great
er practicability of trained paid de-
partment, though smaller, than one in
which every one appeared to be his
own boss and felt no responsibility.
One instance will illustrate the
point. Several firemen were trans
ferring line of hose from one section
of the building to another when the
spray from the hose being used on the
opposite side of the building fell upon
several of them and they dropped the
hose and ran away as though strick
EN- with pestilence. No matter how
good general a man may be if his
men run away he has to fight battle
against immense odds and the fire
wardens and foremen cannot do it all.
The building is Quilted and practi-
cally total loss. The cause of the
fire is puzzle. Mrs. Ennis believes
it was caused from defective Chin
ney and discards the theory that the
children might have been careless
with matches, as all three were under
either her or Miss Browns supervi-
sion at the time the fire broke out.
There is notion that the fire might
have been smouldering in the build
ing for some time before it was dis
covered 1t is simply one of those Pc
culiar unknowns.
Mr.. Ennis, who is at work at Water
bury, was summoned and came home
ON the midnight train. The goods,
which were saved were stored in the
cellar of William Mccormick home
for the present Mrs. Ennis case is
sad one as she is i'll, she and her family
homeless, and most of the little prop
erty she possessed uninsured and lost
or damaged.