Putnam patriot., 1918-07-26

A fire that Is believed to have been of incendiary origin was discovered in the rear of Mullan's grocery store Main street, shortly after o'clock Sunday morning by Miss Jeanette Macdonald, head waitress in the Put nam Inn dining room. The flames completely gutted the large three and one-half story wooden structure Tn the rear of Mullan's grocery store and the rear of the store, where the fire started, was also considerably dam aged. The resulting loss to owners and tenants will go above ten thou sand dollars.
 The principal losers are the Edward Mullan estate, owners of the two structures; Edward Mullan, who con ducts the grocery store, and whose stock was damaged by smoke and wa ter; Lebbeus E. Smith, who occupied the upper floors of the three story building as a furniture storage ware house; and Philias Cloutier, who has a liquor business in the rear building, and who kept rooming house over the MuIlan store A large part of the Mullan loss comes from the damage done by water and smoke to between three and four thousand dollars worth of stock that was stored in the three story building.
 The individual losses were roughly estimated by the owners and tenants Sunday morning as follows: Edward E. Nullan and Edward Mullan estate, over s7,000, partly insured; L. E. Smith, about S2,500, insured; Philias Cloutier, about $500, no insurance.
 It is believed that the fire was set in a shed attached to the rear of the Mullan store. Miss Jeanette Macdon- aid, head waitress at the Inn, saw the blaze from her room in the Inn an- nex. She shouted fire and the porter in the Inn, who had just completed his duties for the night, heard her. He has only been in the city week and was unfamiliar with the location of the fire alarm boxes. He rushed to fire headquarters nearby, but found no way to give an alarm at that place,
 The blaze was rapidly gaining headway, and was seen at the railroad switch tower by the operator, John Kempf, and his assistant, William Murray. Murray ran to box fl at Bugbee corner and pulled in the alarm. It was ten minutes past three when the alarm rung. Railroad loco motives also blew whistles and the extra alarm woke up many people.
 When the fire department arrived the fire was making rapid progress as the building is an old wooden struc- ture and burned rapidly. The fire was soon communicated to the larger building in the rear which is across an alley less than 30 feet in width. The department now had two separate fires to fight. Hose was hitched to hydrants near the railroad station, near Union street, and in the rear of Flagg's store. First one and then another line of hose was laid until the fires were being flooded by seven strong streams. Fortunately there was no breeze. The firemen had a difficult task cut out for them, but had the wind been blowing 1t IS be- lieved 1t would have been beyond hu- man effort to have controlled the flames. The two buildings burned are a part of a group of old wooden structures that are ever fire menace. The other buildings of the group are the old Quinebaug house, the Bradley building and the Rich block, with many small sheds and buildings sur rounding them. If the fire had gotten beyond control these buildings would surely have been wiped out and in all probability others.
 As soon as the blaze was seen break ing from the roof of the large rear structure it was given immediate at tention by the department. Left for a minute the fire in the grocery store building gained more headway. From one building to the other the firemen had to turn until sufficient streams were on to take care of both fires at once. Several men risked their lives on ladders and at one time the over hanging roof of the rear building threatened to fall. Dense clouds Of smoke poured from the building, as furniture and bedding made excellent material for the flames. The rear of the Bradley building caught fire sev-