The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-08-14
Gasoline Ignited i'm French
Dry Cleaning Estab-
lishment
PROPRIETOR COULD
NOT SMOTHER IT
started IN Rett.ng Building and Spread
to Brooks House Annex A. Gossehn
and Hertzberg Brothers Lose by Fire
and Water

Fire which originated in the rear
room of the quarters in the Retting
building on High street occupied by the
Brattleboro Dry Cleaning Co., A. Cos
selln proprietor, which building adioins
the Brooks House, caused damage Sat
urday evening of between 81 500 and
$1,000. Very efficient and quick work
by the lire department alone prevented
very serious fire. The cause has not
been determined, but gasoline used for
cleaning purposes caused an explosion
that filed the room with flames in a
few seconds
Mr.. Gosselin and an employe were
at work IN the front room few min
utes after I clock, having left the
back room half an hour previously.
The electric light in the front room
suddenly went out and the men at work
then discovered fire in the rear room.
Mr.. Gosselin rushed into the rear room
and attempted to throw sand from box
on TO the flames, but was forced to re-
treat at once with his face burned.
Gustaf Hertzberg of Hertzberg
Bros, decorators, whose establishment
IS next to the dry cleaning place. hur-
ried In and ran TO the fire alarm box
at the corner of Main and High street.
where he sounded the alarm from box
81. Within a minute after the alarm
was pulled in there was an explosion
which shook the rear part of the build
ing. Several persons entered the store
and carried out many suits and other
garments, ali Of which were saved and
taken to the sample room of the Brooks
House.
Chauffeur Charles Stockwell of the
fire department was seated in the open
door of the fire station when Mrs.
Charles Bracket whose apartment il
on the south side of Elliot street. called
to him that flames were shooting uo
over the roof of the Brooks House an
mex Stockwell jumped to his seat on
the combination motor apparatus and
was at the scene of the fire before the
second round of the box had been com
pleted.
sWhen the fircmen got to work the
hamcs were shooting up the outside of
the Brooks House annex in which the
Brooks House laundry is located. The
room in which the fire originated was
a furnace and the outside of that build
| ing was on fire at the rear. A stream
lcarried into the store and another out
/ side soon qucnched the worst of the
fire, but the fremcn had to tear up the
TN roof ON part Of the Brooks House
EanneX and part of the roof ON the Ret
ting building to get at the last of the
flames. The spectacular part of the
| fire was over within five minutes after
the fremen got to work. Several lines
of hose were laid, but it was not nee
| essary to use all of them
| Mr.. GosseIn is unable to place a fig
Iiure on his loss todav as it has not
lbeen determined whether machines in
the rear room are ruined. In any
levent it will total several hundred
dollars He carries insurance through
the agency of T. T. Britain
Hertzberg Brothers say their loss.
| principally by water to wall paper and
moul'iings will be close to $500. There
| is water loss in the Brooks House an
Fnex, and the damage to the two build
ings will bring the total damage bv
| the fire to between $500 and So 600.
The buildings are insured through the
agency of II. f. TAYLOR & Son.
fire on Feb p originated in the
same room, but the damage was not so
extensive as that caused bv the fire
Saturday evening.