The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-27
LACoNIA, N. H., FIRE SWEPT.
One Hundred Buildfngs Burned, and
 $50 Families Made Homeless.

Laconia, N. H., May 2s.--A city in darkness tonight, nearly one hundred
 buildings burned, $50 persons made homeless and a loss of between $350, 1000 and $4OO,00O is the story in short of the
 greatest fire this city ever experienced, if not the state of New Hampshire
 The burnt district in the lake port sec
 tion covers about 150 acres. The fire
 caught from an insignificant blaze in the boiler room of the H. H. Wood
 Hosiery mill in the afternoon. In fif- teen minutes the flames had got be- yond the control of the men who had started to extinguish them and in a very short time under Influence of a brisk southeast wind the entire struct-
 ure was wrapped in the destroying ele-
 1nent. Next it went to the finished lumber plant of the Boulia and Gorrell company and then to the works of the
 Laconia Electric Lighting company. In less than an hour both these plants
 were flat. The city fire department not ! only was unable to check the flames at this point but could do nothing to
 put out small fires which had begun to show themselves on buildings on the west side of the Winnipesaukee river. The result was that as burning brands began to fall on houses even some dis tance away, street after street became new locality for a bad fire. By o'clock the conflagration was acres in extent. The work of destruction went
 on until the fire actually burned itself out for want of material, having reach ed" d"outside of what is known as the fire district.
 Help had been summoned from Con-
 cord, Franklin and Meredith, but the combined forces of apparatus and fire
 men were absolutely powerless. It was
 not until after o'clock this evening that any one knew just to what point the fire would go and stop. It was
 hours after this time before it could be said that the fire was under control. Here and there in the burnt area larger structures continued to burn.
 One reason for the quick spread of
 
 ness of all woodwork, for only half an inch of rain has fallen over this section in the last forty days.
 It is unnecessary to state that the scenes as the fire jumped from building to building were narrowing in the ex- treme Householders did their best to save their effects and in a great many cases had removed a portion of their goods out of what they supposed would be the fire zone, but the flames came down upon them and licked up the ar- ticles as they were billed in the city streets. Some people would have saved their goods had there been transporta- ton facilities, but men with horses did not dare to venture into the storm of sparks and brands. Although the city has an abundant supply of water the drain on it was so
 heavy that it decreased the pressure until it reached that point where it be- came of very little help. The heat was
 intense and without pressure in the
 hose the firemen were unable to fight
 at close quarters. The fire made
 grand spectacle as viewed from dis
 tance, and people from all the sur rounding villages flocked into the city.
 Mayor Melcher early took steps to
 provide food and lodging for the home
 less and his efforts were ably seconded
 by the entire population. shelter being
 provided in Odd Fellows hall and in
 several churches. private citizens also
 opening their houses and caring for
 people. The greatest confusion prevail
 ed for hours, but late in the evening
 some order was restored so that the
 work of relief became systematized.
 The district on the west side of the
 Winneosawkee was entirely a residen-
 tial one, and being on an elevation was
 a beautiful spot It is difficult to se-
 cure individual losses. Few houses were worth less than $2.00O and some were
 valued as high as $15,OO0 Dr. c. w.
 Goss in particular had a severe loss for
 besides his house his medical library
 worth $2.5OO was destroyed. This sec-
 ton on the west side of the river prob-
 ably will not be rebuilt for long time.
 Laconia has had other fire exper-
 fences almost as serious as this one. In
 1846 Main street was fire swept both
 east and west with loss of $150,000. In 1860 about the same territory was burn
 ed over at a greater loss. In 1894 the Laconia Car company works were burn ed at @ loss of $200,000. s, ',