Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1913-12-09
Mason Manufacturing Co. Fire
Evidently Another Attempt to Burn
the Factory Of the Concern.
AUTOMATIC sPRINKLERs AND WORK OF
FIREMEN STOPPED THE BLAZE.

Il
Fire of unknown but apparently in
cendiary origin damaged the factory Of
the Mason Manufacturing Co. at South
Paris early Thursday morning. The au
tomato sprinklers got to work when the
blaze had made some progress, and two
streams Of water from hose lines put on
as soon as the firemen could get to work
at that hour quickly got the fire under
control, and prevented the destruction
of the plant.
1t was between half-past one and two
o'clock Thursday morning when the fire
was discovered. Just who first saw the
light of it the Democrat is unable to
state, but the first man on the ground
was Elmer o. Millett. Mrs. Millett was
awakened by the ringing of the Mason
Manufacturing Co. call on their tele-
phone, which is on the same line. The
telephone of the company, by the way,
is in the office, and not accessible to the
Waterman. Thinking that there was a
fire somewhere and the alarm was want
ed, Mr.. and Mrs. Millett investigated,
and discovered light in the direction of
the factory.
Mr.. Millett as quickly as possible got
to the factory and notified the watch
man, George Patch, who had not discov-
cred it, of the fire. He then went back
after the hose, and four members of
Hose Co. No. were soon there with the
hose and had stream on from one OF
the hydrants in the mill yard. The au-
tomato sprinklers were at work before
the firemeu got their stream on.
In the meantime the alarm was given
by the factory whistle, and littlo later
the church bells joined in, and the vii
lage was thoroughly walked up. The
tiremen gathered, q second hydrant
stream was put on, and in few minutes
the blaze was quenched, and the fire
was under control, though tons of water
were put on before all the spots had
been hunted down and the fire was "all
out"
The principal blaze was in toilet
room built outside the frame of the
main building, on the east side OF the
paint shop part of the factory, just
south of the brick wall which separates
the wood working portion of the factory
and the paint shop. This annex was
practically all burned off, and tue fire
spread somewhat in that corner Of the
rooms on all three floors, and ran along
the roof at the caves for some distance
toward the south.
Some twenty-five or thirty feet south
of the main blaze, with three windows
between, is another mark Of fire, a strip
about two feet wide being burned from
the ground to the caves. On the outside
the roofing material with which the
building is covered is all burned off, but
on the inside there is no sign of fire at
that place until about the height of the
second floor, where it charred through
the boards of the wall. Along the caves
the line of burning from one place to
the other was continuous, but at the
lower part of the building the two we're
entirely separate. Either the fire ran
from one point up to the roof, along the
caves, and down to the ground at anoth-
er place twenty-five or thirty feet dis
tant, or else the fire started at two
points at or near the outside of the
building.
In the corner of the lower room where
the principal fire was there were some
barrels of paint material, including two
iron varnish tanks. The faucet on one
of these was found open when the room
was first entered. On the other the fau-
Get had been burned so that 1t could not
be turned, and It did not appear wheth.
er il was open or closed, but the tank
was found empty.
So much for the south side of the
brick fire wall. In the middle of this
wall are metal covered fire doors which
form the communication between the
two departments. In the woodworking
department on the north side of this
wall, on the ground floor, few feet
from the door (Which was closely we're
some trucks loaded with bowels. The
bowels on one of these trucks were
found to be sblaze, and the fire was put
out by c. Z. McArdle with pail of wat
or. On two other trucks, at q distance
of few feet, the bowels had apparently
been partly saturated with naptha or
kerosene, both the smell and the wet
ness of which were plain, but neither Of
these was on fire.
All the circumstances seem to indi-
cate that it was the intention of some
one to have fires going on both sides Of
the brick wall at the same time, but all
the fire that was found on the north side
of the wall after people arrived was on
the one truck load of bowels.
The Waterman had made his regular
rounds some time before the fire was
discovered, and was in the boiler room
when he was notified OF the fire.
The damage to the building and stock
is estimated between one and two thou
sand dollars.
On the morning of the oath Of last
March, at almost exactly the same hour,
a fire was discovered under the floor at
fha North end of this sama factory