Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-07-22
BURNED LIKE POWDER
YouBQsier Sets Fire 10 a Load
 of Bay on Street.

Waterbury had a unique fire this morning and for a time few knew
 what was burning. Patrick Me
 Mahon and Charles Miller were de- livering a load of hay from the
 Brookside home farm to Frank l Shepard, the Brook street liveryman
 and had reached point near the entrance to the barn when mis-
 chievious youngster is said to have
 stepped across the street, touched
 a match to the dry hay and then
 scampered off in the direction of
 East Main street. McMahon and Miller were on the top of the load in blissful ignorance of what had
 happened when MT Shepard came out and shouted "Fire!" The men
 on the load looked this way and that
 while Shepard got. busy to prevent
 them from driving into the shed.
 Finally the men in charge of the
 horses felt things getting warm and
 hustled to the ground as quickly
 as possible and unhitched the horses
 from the wagon. In the meantime
 MT Shepard had notified the fire de-
 partment over the phone and soon Chief Snagg and force of men were
 on hand and commenced pouring
 water onto the burning hay. The firemen seeing the sort of job they
 had to tackle scampered around and arming themselves with forks re-
 turned to the attack making a formidable appearance as they rush ed this way and that with the weapons on their shoulders. The load was pushed off the wagon and the vehicle removed to place of safety after which the firemen con tinued to deluge the burning hay, which blazed, smoldered and smoked for over an hour and when the ex- citement was over the thing wasn't worth ten cents, although 1t lacked but two pounds of a ton before 1t was fired.
 Detective Kennaugh was on the ground early and interrogated a number of youngsters who he found in the neighborhood of the conflagra- tion, but 1t appeared that all of them had been attracted to the spot by the fire and knew nothing about how 1t had happened, the real culprit having skipped as soon as he did the job. It was a wicked thing and assuming that the story regarding the use of the match is true. 1t is hoped that the guilty party will be located and given the full length of the lash. It was bad enough to lose the hay, but the situation came near being worse, for if the men had gone | little farther they would have gone | under the shed and then 1t would | have been impossible to back out on | time to avoid setting the building on fire causing a blaze which in all | would ruin considerable 
 This is the second fire of that sort | that has occurred In Waterbury since the fire department was organized, the other happening many years ago on Mill street, when the horses at- Ad1hNu No NuC NabOh "NAt bhAARA and the driver had his pants scorchar and his whiskers singed.
 It was said this afternoon that set ting the fire to the load of hay was not due to the work of any bad boy, but to the carelessness of a dude. who was going along on the sidewalk and threw the butt of a lighted cigafette out of his hand without taking any particular notice of where It went It struck in the hay and once the fire started the boys came around and naturally they were blamed for It. It was also re- ported that one of the men on the load was tugging at a pipe. but this has been denied. Nobody knows how t started and so long as this Is so t isn't fair to charge it up to the small boy. who has troubles enough without shouldering things that pos sibly belong to others.