Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-12-10
FOUR ALARMS
For a Hot Blaze on Portland
Street, Boston.
Building Quilted, With Total Loss to
All Concerned, Sl25,000.
Several Narrow Escapes of Inmates
Good Work of Firemen.

Boston, Dec. 9--The manufacturing
district of the West End was threat
ened, today by a fire which p"acti-
| cally destroyed the fivestory brick
!, building at 195-201 Portland street, oc-
cupied on the five top floors by John
A. Dunn, chair mandatory. 1t was
estimated that the loss entailed on the
building, the furniture stock and to
| other business men whose property
was damaged will be S125,0O0. The fire
WAS practically confined to the Dunn
building and that it did not spread to
| the other large brick structures ad-
! joining Oh the north and on the east
brick walls and secondly to the most
| effective work Of the fire department.
| -Four alarms were sounded, calling
| large part of the city'S apparatus to
| the scene. in spite OF the Quickness
with when the blaze spread through
| the Dunn building. caused by the eX
| IRENE combustibility of the material,
not single one of the 100 persons en-
| pOyed in the factory was injured.
| There We're. however. many thrilling
escapes. Four women bookkeepers and
stenograp piers who were at WORK on the
| third floor had to srope their way down
the stair; through binding smoke.
| One workman who insisted on re-
turning for a grip containing valuables.
was made unconscious by the smoke
| and by falling over furniture. He was
rescued by q fellow uphOlSterer, who
bravely went back to assist him. Two
men. one Peter Donahue, employed in
the finishing room Oh the top floor, and
the other, an electrician. whose name
could not be learned, found their
means OF escape cut off by the stair
ways and they were forced to jump
from tho roof some 20 feet to the top
of an adjoining structure from which
place they made their way to the
ground by Il ire escape in safety.
They were merely slightly bruised.
Estimates of the insurance Show that
the loss is about four-fifths covered.
| Added to the damage. however, is the
loss which accrues to the Dunn Co. on
l'account of the destruction Of it's prop
! ertv ut its busiest season, when the
building was stocked for the Christ
mas trade.
| The fire was discovered about .
O'Clock, by business man who was
passing up Portland street from the
| North Union station, which is only 200
feet from the scene of the fire. He at
| once sounded an alarm. The fire
started on the top floor of the building
! from an explosion of varnish which
became ignited from wires on which
the electrician who jumped from the
roof was at work. a series Of explo-
SONS of liquid used in finishing chairs
soon filed the top floor with Il mass oc
flames. Out of this Donahue and his
companions rushed to the roof. first.
/ however, warning the worlmen on the
floors below by shouting down the
elevator well.
| To the comparative slowness With
which the fire eat its way downward is;
undoubtedly due the escape of all
! those below. The smoke, however,
spread down the elevator we'll and the
stairways in dense volumes. Through
this men on the second, third and
fourth floors dashed to the stairway
and feeling their way down step and
step succeeded in gaining the street.
Several women on the third story en-
| played in the cushion department
wcrc assisted to the open air by work.
men On the same floor.
one Of these women vas Mrs Albert
, Lamont She was obliged to crawl on her
| hands and knees to prevent suffocation
and in this way she managed to reach
! tho stairway. Several women stanCSrap phi
crs on the second floor had similar expe-
| ricnceS \ salesman who was standing
| on the second floor insisted on running
M to the story above to get bag con-
tanning valuahles. He secured his proper
ty. but in returning stumbled over chairs
and fell. He was dragged out by n work
man and led down the staircase.
Fly this time four alarms had been
sounded and the flames were in possession
ot the entire upper stories. Tho building
was bounded on the north by q seven
story Trick structure occupied On six
floors by the G.. W. Bent Co. furniture
manufacturers. On the east with only q
narrow alley between were two brick
structures, one five stories occupied
Throughout by Cobb. Bates & YerNa.
wholesale grocers. the other four-story