Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-12-19
WHOSE FAULT?
Speculation as to Cause
Of the Fire.
High School Boys Indignant at
Talk of CareIessness
And Assert that Their Stove Was
Properly Cared for.

The day after the fire brings with II
widespread inquiry as to the matter oil
responsibility. That someone was care
less and that to that CareleSSness the
destruction of the block is due, is genere-
alIy believed. but at just whose door the
fault should be placed is not. and may
never be known.
The earliest witnesses of the flames
which then had a good Roadway. are not
agreed as to the exact location of the fire
at that period. but those who are most
positive in their remembrance place it on
the top floor, in the northwest corner,
where the old Odd Fellows hall, in which
the boys have been practicing basketball.
was situated. and for this reason some
rarelessness on their part has been the
most generally accepted explanation of
ahe fire as wood stove was used by the
High school boys in an anteroom in the
exact locality where one of the early wit
nesses of the fire first saw the flames
Both the High school boys ana the
Marston wooden mills boys vigorously de-
ny the possibility of any such act or
omission on their part being the cause OF
the fire. The hall runs along the rear OF
the block on Russell street. In the north
west corner is the room where the stove
was located, used by the High school boys
rs a dressing room. The last that anyone
was in this room, they say. was the lat
ter part of the afternoon, after they had
finished their daily practice. The door
was then locked and no one else could
have secured an entrance. AT that time
the stove was practically out. from which
they claim that it could not by any pos
sibility have been the cause of a fire in
the block as late as l o'clock the next
morning.
The dressing roc used by the worsted
mills team was on the other end of the
hall and was heated by a small oil stove.
This stove was extinguished at 9.l5, the
players state. when the hall was locked.
As this was on the other end of the build
ing from that in which the fire started.
that stove is eliminated as cause of the
disaster. All the players affirm that there
was nothing in the hall itself from which
the fire could have caught
According to their theory of the fire. 1t
started in the hall below, Coburn hall
proper on the second story. and worked
its way upward until 1t broke through the
windows in the top story. The stage and
dressing rooms are on the Russell street
end of the hall and the toilet room near
the northwest corner has been used more
or less by certain element of the pub
lie. the hall not being always kept locked
The natural course of fire starting there
the boys claim. is to work up along tbs
inside partitions or the infiammable seen
cry and miscellaneous material on the
back Of the stage, first making its ap
pearance to the outside passerby through
the windows of the top story. If the fir'
had started in the top story, they main
tain. it would have broken through thu
roof sooner. and not made its way so rap
idly down through into the stores below
The High school boys feel that the,
have been wronged by the general be
lief that the stove under their contro
was the cause of the disaster as NOR
or less blame has been placed on the Hal
Association for allowing the use of thei
building for sports, and they are positiv
In their assertion that they have Away
exercised the utmost care and are not tn
''set of rowdies" that many have charaC
teriZed them