Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-05-02
VALIANT WORK
OfAugusta Firemen Pfais-
ed al Bangor.
Eye witness Describes Horror
OF The Great Fire.
st. Marks Offers Aid TO the Ban
gor Fire Sufferers.

The Augusta fire department did
valuable service at the Bangor fire in
protecting the residential section Of
the city and the firemen We're compile.
mented from all sides both upon the
ease with which they worked the
steamer and the stream of water
which the City of Augusta was able to
throw
Alderman Skehan, chairman of the
committee on fire department. ran the
steamer City of Augusta for six hours
and during all the time the noble
machine worked without skip. The
Is firemen who went with the steamer
We're in charge OF Assistant Engineer
Charles G. Hunt and 1900 feet of hose
were carried with the steamer.
The run to Bangor was made in
little less than two hours. The spe
cial train left Augusta at sos Sunday
night and was slowing up in the Ban
gor yards several minutes before 10
O'Clock.
The City Of Augusta stood in three
different locations in the residential
section, being in the vicinity of Har-
low street and near Broadway and
worked continuously until A. NJ.
Monday. The start home was made at
A. NJ. and the special followed the
9.36 A. NJ. train to Augusta.
In speaking of the fire Alderman
Skehan said: 1T was q sight never
To be forgotten in the residential sec
ton of Bangor. As we entered k we
saw people moving away their belong
ings in baby carriages and wheeibar
rows and it was more frequently that
wagons We're hauled by men than by
horses. In some instances heavy sleds
were hauled by horses along the dusty
streets loaded with all the household
furniture that the poor beasts could
stagger under. Valuable furnishings
of all kinds, splendid glass mirrors and
costly chamber sets We're strewn about
the streets and dooryards.7
The people were actually and COM
pletely panic stricken. In many in
stances we found that they had aban-
doned their houses to burn when it
seemed IS if the use Of a garden hose
might have kept the fire away from
them. Lines of hose had been taken
hold of by the citizens and worked as
long as they could and then thrown in
the gutter.
In many cases the falling of timbers
had broken water pipes and left them
running and this contributed to the
low pressure of the water. The Ban
gor firemen fought heroically in the
business section, but as one of them
expressed it they We're "all in" when
they got up into the residential part
of the town. One of the men told me
that although they responded quickly
for hh OLE - g
Broad street by the time they got
there instead of one fire they found
seven fires burning all at once.
4 saw people in the street dumping
wearing apparel that they had brought
from their houses in their despair at
being unable to get away from the fire
All over the city people were packing
up preparing to move. Not only in
the houses thar We're threatened was
this moving going on but also in houses
where no one could possibly believe
the fire would come.
Il saw houses with the doors wide
open and only part of the furniture
taken out and no signs of the people
who lived there. The streets in the
residential section were well patrolIed
by militia and police and l saw no at
tempts made at looting. The fire was
equally divided between the business
and residential section and men who
also saw the Chelsea. fire tell me that
while the latter burned over a larger
area it could never for a moment com
pare in fierceness with the Bangor
fire. We only saw evidences of the
fiereest part of it for the fire was
nearly under control in the business
section by 10 P. NJ. I was told that
the burned area covered over one
third, but not quite one half of the
city.