Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-26

I POsIaIn SOdp
cause nedteated with Poslam Large
size. % cents; Toilet size 10 cents.-AoN.
the entire section. destroying more
| than 20 factory buildings and scores
! of dwellings and small stores.
There was a panic in the korn rae
tory. when the fire broke ont but only
one person was hurt in leaving the
building. The new High school build
| ing escaped the fire.
All the stores, houses and other
buildings along either side of Boston
street from Putnam street to the cor
ner of Boston and Essex streets and
thence up Essex street to jackson
street were burned.
Through West Side
The fire spread rapidly through the
west side of the city at the loot OF
Gallows hill. Buildings in territory
about two miles long and more than
half a mile wide, extending from Proc
| tor and Boston streets on the north
! to Jefferson avenue in the south, was
/ devastated by the flames. Included in
this district were Proctor, Pope, Broad
Hawthorne, Winthrop, Mount Vernon,
Endicott and Pea body streets, on
which practically all structures were
! destroyed.
In the meantime falling embers from
| the conflagration started fires in South
! Salem.
All available fire apparatus was In
the Gallows hill section and South
! Salem was left without fire protec-
| ton. First one building and then an
| other burst into flames. AS evening
approached the fire spread in all di-
rections, destroying hundreds of resi-
| dences, including many handsome
| homes on fashionable Lafayette street
| The City Orphan Asylum on Lafay-
cite street, sheltering $50 children, was
| destroyed. All of the children were
/ taken by the nuns to place of
| safety.
On Lafayette Street
| The flames devastated buildings on
i Lafayette street from the State Nor
NAL school north to Cedar and Ever
/ EFT streets.
From this point the fire swept like
| a huge sickle across Salem and Park
/ streets to the water front. There was
/ no apparatus here to check the flames,
which licked up scores of tenements
| and high wooden apartment houses
At the start the water pressure was
/ low and when the fight had become
/ desperate a great water main near
/ the Beverly bridge broke, and the fire.
men were almost helpless.
Calls for. Assistance
Meanwhile calls for assistance had
| been sent to nearby cities. An enor-
j Of ra tllS
from the most antique tubs to the new
! high pressure automobile engine of
the Manchester, N. H., fire department,
were rushed to Salem.
! The Manchester engine undertook to
pump water from the ocean. Boston,
Lynn and other cities sent apparatus
and details of police.
The combined efforts of the great
aggregation OF fire fighting machines
was futile and when darkness fell re-
sort was had to dynamite. Several
| blocks in the path of the flames were
| blown up in the hope of checking their
progress, but tickle wind, that shift
ed four times, each time carried the
destruction in a new direction.
Hospital inmates Flee
7
inmates, about $50 in number. when the
fire became threatening in that section.
| The patients were placed on cots and
| stretchers and removed to the homes OF
people in the neghborhood Some of the
| less seriously sick were cared for on the
lawns of private residences.
| One child was born in the hospital dur
ing the excitement of the fire, the daugh-
ter Of Mrs. Roe ETH. st. Joseph's Ro-.
man Catholic church, valued at s2500oo,
was burned and the Church of the I'M
| maculate Conception was in great dan
ger Both these churches were on Chat
| ham street.
Naumkeae Cotton Mills Go
! The Naumkeag cotton mills. employing
5000 hands, were swept by the flames and
the entire South Point district, where
most of the mill operatives had their
homes, was wiped out. Many children OF
| these families were reported to the po-
lice as missing.
| Henry Lodge, a Lynn volunteer fire.
man. was overcome by smoke and flame
and was removed to hospital in very
serious condition. Anthony j. Girard of
Steart street, Salem, was also reported
seriously injured.
Factory Buildings Escape
The wind blew the flames away from
the big factory buildings of the Ameri-
can Hide & Leather Co. and the Cass
& Daley Co, and these structures were
! saved.
All roads leading out of the city
were crowded with refugees on foot
in automobiles and in all sorts of con-
veyances. Many carried all they had
saved of their household possessions
wrapped in sheets and shawls over
their shoulders. The only trolley line
in operation out of the city was that
running to Beverly and this early be-
came jammed with the fleeing house
holders.
Try to Save 3. & M. Station
A determined effort was made to stop