The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-07-14
Many Acres on Black Mountain
Burned Over.
IN PROGRESS SINCE SATURDAY
As Many as 200 Men Have Been Fight,
ing the Flames at One Time-Brattle'
boro Authorities Have Helped in
Gathering Force of Fire Fighters.

ain in Dummerston. At times during the
week over 300 men were fighting the
| flames. All sorts OF wild rumors have
reached Brattleboro each day and in some
| cases several times each day, Of the close
proximity OF the flames to several houses
but up to last night the fire lighters had
managed by back-fring and trenehing to
protect all places of abode. The call for
| 100 men from Selectman f. c. Tenney
Monday followed by another call Tuesday
for all OF the available help 10 be had in
Brattleboro gave to local people their first
lntimatiOn OF the seriousness OF the situa.
tion in Dummerston. The selectmen of
Brattleboro co-operated with the selectmen
OF Dummerston By securing help IN this
village and II Is safe 10 say that 90 auto
mobile trips have been made between Brat.
tleboro and the scene of the fire An esti.
mate made last night by several men ac-
quainted with the territory burned over
put the area at mile square. The hre
line at times was nearly two miles IN
length. Rumors were ahoat about this
village yesterday afternoon TO the effect
that the occupants OF the George Fisher
house were moving out the furniture pre-
paratory to abandoning the premises This
proved to be the widest sort OF a rumOr
for the fire al : O'Clock last night was at
its nearest point probably a half a mile
from the house and separated by wide
piece of pasture land OF a swampy nature.
The fire at dark last night showed some
signs OF having burned itself out in many
places but the south end Of the mountain
was ablaze in dozens OF places and present
ed magnificent spectacle. Many auto
mobile parties from Brattleboro went toI
the scene yesterday. While there Is still
a large force of men at work attempting TO
1t % .l,aR Efr agl--
bring it is likely that the fire will con
tinue to destroy much young timber Only
heavy rains will quench the flames as the
fire is in the ground in hundreds of places
and sometimes crawls IL or 20 feet under
ground having followed root or burned
beneath the pine needles.
The fire was discovered Saturday after
noon on land of VI O. Robbins and an at
tempt was made to extnguish it by several
Dummerston farmers 1t was soon seen
that large force of fire fighters would be
required even to stay the progress OF the
flames and word was sent by Selectman +.
{. Tenney of Dummerston TO Selectman
John Calvin OF Bratteboro asking for help
to be sent up Sunday. About 20 Brattle-
boro men were sent in automobiles and
worked all day Sunday Saturday after
noon force of men from Holden Il Mar
tins shop in this village went TO DUN,
merston to save their employers timber II
possible and this gang of dozen or more
men was increased Sunday and Monday
Mr. Holden increased his fire fighting force
TO 80 men. Monday came an appeal from
Dummerston for 100 able-bodied men to
fight fire and Selectman Calvin secured
several automobile loads OF experienced
forest firemen. BY the time the. $50 men
got settled to a systematic battle against |
the flames by back-hring Monday i was
estimated that 200 acres already had been
burned over
BY the hardest kind of work in heat |
which was terrific the fire was stopped at
several points and the fire fighters began
to congratulate themselves that they had |
control of the blaze and could limit the !
area which would be burned over. but |
Tuesday evening the patrol was unable to
hold the blaze within the bounds which |
had been considered as the extent of the |
fire That night the fire got beyond con
troll and Wednesday morning word reach. |
ed Brattleboro that the fire had burned !
over land owned by Adm Fits, Holden 4 |
Martin. Bert Reed, Robert Blood George |
Fisher and the Lyons Granite Co. About
100 cords of wood owned by John Taft |
went up in smoke and Holden 4 Martins |
timber lots were damaged to the extent Of
about 500.
Wednesday morning the wind freshened
and the eastern and northern sides of
Black mountain were like roaring furnaces. |
The fighters began to be apprehensive
about the safety of the Blood and Fisher
houses and early Wednesday forenoon
preparations were made to back fire from
the Blood house a short distance north of
the Fisher farm. Wide swaths were cut
with moving machine through the heavy
standing grass and a plow was used to
turn furrow to hold the back fire AT the
time this attempt was made to protect
houses it was impossible to get within $50
feet of the fire line which was sweeping
up the Horseshoe which is a deep gulch
almost impossible from the tops and limbs
of trees cut many years ago. The Blood |
farm was made the field headquarters for
the fire fighting force Tuesday and auto
mobiles made hurried trips to Brattleboro
and return bringing reinforcements every
few hours d. Frank Shea was appointed
commissariat and was kept busy for the
best part of the day Monday feeding the
$50 or more men stretched along a fire
line over a mile long.
Yesterday was one of the hardest days
for the fire fighters as a brisk breeze drovel
the flames along through heavy growth
of pine south of the Blood farm and gave
the men reason to fear that it might drive
them back to point where they could not
protect the house on this farm as well as
the Fisher house short distance south of
the Blood farm. The wind, however,
changed sufficiently to assist the firemen
and the flames travelled rather more to the
west and south and the danger was
averted
A stubborn blaze on the Goodall farm
on the Putney road kept local fire fighters
busy Saturday and Tuesday The fire was
discovered by son of Matthew Howard,
who operates the farm, last Friday and an
showed that it evidently orig
mated from lightning striking six large
pine trees a short distance southeast of the
tenant house on the farm. The occupants
of the farm attempted to cope with the
blaze Friday and finding themselves una
BILE to subdue the flames sent word to Sc
lectman John Calvin. Mr.. Calvin secured
assistance and accompanied by Selectman
A. f. Merrill and force of fire fighters
went to the fire in automobiles. After sew
eral hours work the fire was gotten under
control and left to burn out. Tuesday
afternoon word was sent to this village
that the fire was again spreading and Sc
lectman Calvin mustered another force of
men and went to the scene. For three or
four hours the men worked with shovels
and fire extinguishers and again subdued
the blaze A man was left to watch the
embers all night Tuesday. The
fire worked its way out of the woods into
the field south of the tenant house on the
farm and ran through the green grass as
though the material was tinder