The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-08-20
OLD ORCHARD BEACH
IS FIRE SWEPT
Sixteen Hotels and About SO Cot
tages Burned atFamoAs Resort.
FIREMEN WERE PoWERLEss
Dynamite Finally Used to Raze Build
ing and Check the BIaze-Hun-
dreds of Summer Visitors Home-
Iess-Property Loss q Million.

Old Orchard, Me.-Four men were
killed and property valued at almost
100000 was destroyed in fire
that swept along two miles of the
beach front here. For almost four
hours the fire burned unchecked and
threatened to destroy the entire viii
lage. The buildings destroyed in
clude sixteen of the leading hotels,
many business houses, fifty cottages
and lighthouses. 1t was not until al
most midnight that the fire was under
control. Fifty acres of the heart of
Old Orchard were swept clean of
every hotel and cottage.
These fatalities attended the fire:
Philip Partridge, twenty-four years
old, of Pittsburg, struck by Boston
and Maine train at Kennebunk and
killed while on the way to the fire.
Dominick Lebreque, Portland, aged
thirty-two, instantly KILLED by explo-
sion of soda tank.
Philip Perrault, Biddeford, forty
years old, dead at hospital from inju-
ries sustained through tank explosion.
Hundreds of summer visitors are
homeless and all their property is de-
stroyed. There are no facilities here
to feed, clothe or care for the visitors.
The fire started by the overturning
of lamp in a. cottage occupied by
employees of the Emerson Hotel 1t
spread quickly to adjoining cottages.
AS the water service was poor and the
volunteer fire department slow, the
fire rapidly swept over the beach
colony
When the Emerson Hotel broke
into flames the fighters realized that
the confagration could not be ham
died, and assistance was asked from
Saco, Biddeford and Portland, but
such aid was of little use, owing to
inadequate water service
Within an hour the flames totally
destroyed the Emerson Hotel, the
Fiske, the Alberta and Olympic and
more than seventyfive cottages. The
Seashore Hotel went later. From the
Olympic Hotel the fire Jumped across
the street, destroying the Alberta,
and then turned and swept down the
line and in few minutes consumed
the Hotel Fiske, one of the largest at
the beach and valued at $4,000.
From the Fiske the flames swept
the Emerson Hotel, valued at SIS, 900
and occupied by more than one hum
bred guests. After destroying the
Alberta the fire swept down both sides
of the street along the tracks of the
Boston & Maine Railroad. The sta
tion was dynamited in an effort to
check the flames. Az
The Old Orchard House of the big
hotels is alone safe. Among the
buildings burned besides the hotels
were: Weaver's sawmill and lumber
yard Pointer & Victor's coal sheds;
Thomas L. Gloves restaurant and
bowling alleys; Hangan's drug store;
McDonald's drug store and many
stores along the boardwalk. The Of
flee of the New England Telegraph
and Telephone Company and of the
Western Union and Postal Telegraph
companies, were destroyed.
There has been an epidemic of fires
this season at the various summer
resorts, and within month three big
hotels have been destroyed.
On July 80 the Long Beach Hotel
was burned. There were about nine
hundred guests in the hotel at the
time. Less than half score were
injured, and there were no fatalities.
The hotel was a mass of smouldering
ruins two hours after the FIRE started.
Fire destroyed the Hotel Brooklyn,
of Centre Moriches, Long Island, on
August IA. The building was burned
down and the $50 guests were glad to
get out alive.
On the same day 23O guests from
New York and Philadelphia were
driven from the Squirrel Inn, at
Haines Falls, N, Y, by one of the
most sudden and dangerous fires
which ever occurred in the Catskill
Mountains. The entire building and
all the furniture and equipments
were total loss.