Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-08-22
BURNED TO GROUND
Rouse on Plank Owned By I. E.
 Hayes.

Fire last evening about ' o'clock burned to the ground the house on the Plank road, short distance beyond the old pumping station, known at one time as the "Dave Blodgett" place. but more recently as Gould's. The present owner of the land and build- ing which stood there until last night. is Thomas H. Hayes, who places hls loss at about $s.000. How the fire started is mystery. There was no one in the house since Saturday. 1t is thought that the wires entering the building and which supplied 1t with light may have had something to do with 1t, but this is only a mat. ter of conjecture. It was stated last evening that a barrel of oil was gen. erally kept on the east side of the building and If match had been dropped near 1t, 1t would De likely to go up.
 Mr and Mrs Martin F. Byrnes. the former a member of the Sacred Heart church choir, were the recent occn- pants of the house. Bec9use of the death of their infant son they left | Saturday for Danbury where they in- | tended to bury their child.
 It was shortly before [ o'colck that Officer John Delehanty, wno does duty in Hamilton park received word that the Hayes property was on fire. He immediately notified police headquar- ters and the Leavenworth street fire men were sent out, both the steamer and the chemical making the run. AL though it is good pull to the fire, I the horses made excellent time, con- sidering the softness of the roads. About fifteen minutes after receiving the call, the firemen had arrived at the blaze, which by that time was Il. luminatlng the sky in the eastern sec tion of the city.
 | Deputy Chief Dodds saw that 1t would be almost impossible to do anything with the house. Moreover. nothing could be done, as the brook running by the side of the road at | this point has dried up and 1t would take a mighty long time to lay a line of hose from the Mad river to the scene of the conf1agratlon. But the | firemen used the chemicals little so as to make sure that the barn, which is adjoining the house, would not ignite.
 Although there were twenty-two rooms in the house. by the time the firemen arrived, 1t was almost impns- sible to go into any one of them. The | fire seemed to have started in the | front of the house and biazed to such an extent that the trees Sy tho road | side were soon ignited. The fire fighters ascended the trees by means of ladders and extinguished the blaze with the chemicals.
 Although each room was furnished. it is not thought that the loss as re- gards the household effects Is large. About twenty persons whu arrived at l the fire shortly after 1t started help ed to carry out some of the furnl- ture and placed 1t in the rear of the house. The carpets were rolled up and much of the furniture looked as though 1t was about to be taken away.
 The fire attracted many people from the eastern section of the city, as the house was situated in grove of trees, as it were, and made a blaze that could be seen long distance away.
 It Is believed that tramps hayec been around the house since Satur- day, for on that night eighty-two chickens which Mir Byrnes had left here were stolen. But as far as Is known on one was seen in the vl- cinity of the house yesterday. The watchman moved away about a week ago. The fire was first seen by q baker named Minor, who lives near Summit. The property was assessed for $5,000.