The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-13
THREE STORES AND TENEMENT GUTTED
 BY TWO BIG FIRES
(COntinued from page 1.)

three-year son were in bed when Gardner was awakened by the cries of fire.
 Without waiting to put on his clothing he pulled his wife out of bed picked up his son up and started for the hallway. Reaching the head of the stairs his wife, unable to see and enveloped in pillow of smoke lost her presence of mind and hysterically sat on the stair screaming, and re- fusing to go further.
 Gardner with one hand holding the infant and the other his wife's arm managed to get her down one flight to the second floor. Here he was fore ed to let go his hold owing to her struggles. Her screams could be heard by the firemen who at this juncture tried to penetrate the smoke and rescue her.
 Take the boy and I'll stay,'' she kept shouting to her husband. Cs ot. Charles w. Holden and Capt. Arth UT Platt again, and again tried to find them groping about the halls crawl ing on their hands and knees. They finally located the woman, picked her up and forced her into the street. her husband following.
 The family of George $. Baker, who live on the floor beneath Gard her escaped without much difficulty. Baker has been ill and was in bed as was his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law, when the alarm was sounded. He carried his mother-in- law down the back stairs and re- turned to rescue his wife and children whom he had told to follow him.
 He found however that firemen had taken the two girls, Florence, 5 years, and Myrtle, 8 years, to safety and his wife had escaped. All the members of the unclad families were gathered in Freedman's store where clothing was brought by neighbors to furnish temporary covering. Lynch, chopping wood in the cellar directly beneath the spot where the fire started, escaped with difficult q ty. He first tried to run up the stairway which leads into the store but was driven back b" fire and smoke. Armed with an axe, he chopped through one of the cellar windows and crawled through it into the back yard.
 The firemen suffered intensely from cold and smoke, which poured in great pillows into the str ct and the fire ate it's way into the clothing store, consuming wool blankets, GOV erlets and clothing. < AS fast as the water from the streams of hose struck them it froze, impeding their movements and covering them with a coat of ice. A back draft, caused by the fire mushrooming up through the walls of the structure, which is construct ed entirely of wood, blew off the plaster in the kitchen and hall of the Baker tenement and created some alarm, at first the explosion caused some to believe that powder or a like material was stored in the house. Gus Phillips, of 5S1 East Main street, who rushed into the st.~e when Lee gave his first warning, stated that if he could have procured a pail of water he could have put out the blaze. But Lee was hysterical and could give him no aid. Lees daugh- ter,f Ella, who came running to the scene. fainted in her fathers arms and both were assisted to nearby store. x
 I Lee stated that the stock in the two stores he conducts is valued at $12,0O0, which is covered by $7,0OO insurance. His entire stock was destroyed. It is estimated that $1,80O will cover the damage to the structure and $1,5OO the total loss to the household goods of the tenants.
 Housewives in the vicinity rendered great service to the firemen, bringing them great pitchers of hot coffee to drink, hot rolls and taking them into their homes to thaw them out, in some instances. Chief Johnson stated the blaze had obtained great headway by the time the department reached the scene and it was with great difficulty that tie blaze was kept from spread ing to other finder box structures in the vicinity.
 The chief damage done by the fire in the Main street block was caused by smoke and water and will necessi- tate the Connors Clothing Go. sus- pending business operations for today.
 The blaze, it is thought, by Chief Johnson may have been caused by spontaneous combustion or defective electric wiring. It started in a small closet in the, hallway on the second floor of the structure directly over the Connors Clothing Go. The second and third floors are occupied by l.. H. Corbit, 8 photographer. The stair ways leading to the second and third floors are boxed in at both ends by doors.
 II When the firemen reached the scene the hallway was a veritable fur- mace and the flames had burned clear through the roof of the building Thousands of dollars worth of costly plumes, feather boas and like ma- Il terial which comprises the stock of G. M. Stadler, who occupies the sec- ond &nd third floors opposite the Cor bit establishment were threatened with destruction.
 , The efforts of the flremen to con- fine the blaze to Corbit's studio and the Connors store were successful, 1 however. The stock was stored in 1 boxes and Stadlers loss like that of Bills hat store was caused by water and smoke. The formers damage will not exceed 1000 and the latter is es- timated at about $500.
 The entire stock of Corbit's studio was ruined, including printing and developing machines and a great stock of plates. The frenen after chopping down the doors which boxed the fire poured a dozen streams of water into the building which soaked through the floor of Connors' store. The latter stated that Ne values his stock at s15 0OA and thinks half of it has been ruined