The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-11-17
CRANITEVILLE HOUSE -
DESTROYED BY FIh.
Another Building Damaged and Entire
Village Was Threatened for
Time on Sunday.


From meeting house and homes, peo-
pie in lower Graniteville rushed out
yesterday morning to assist in extin-
gushing a fire which started in the
basement of the FIVE tenement house
located near the former W. H. Miles
store; but with all their efforts To
combat the flames, the large dwelling
house burned to the ground, leaving
nothing but the foundation walls. In
the basement apartment dwelt the
family Of Alex Murray, a quarryman
of the Il. L. Smith & Co g lower quarry.
Not thing, except the clothes which
Mr. Murray and his wife and family
had on at the time, was saved. This
was the only part of the large dwell
ing house which was occupied, the fam
lily of Alvin McLeay having moved all
but few pieces of furniture to their
new home in Springfield from one of
these apartments during the past week.
Men, women and children formed a
bucket brigade, since Graniteyille has
no organized fire department, and from
large well carried water. But their
efforts were all in vain against such a
raging fire, and in a few minutes they
were compelled TO divert their atten-
tion to the neighboring four tenement
house, owned by Norman Mckenzie.
This too was in danger of being de-
stroyed, the flames which destroyed a
large barn at the rear of the Hooker
property having spread to the Mcken-
zie building on the east end, causing
greater part of the end wall to be
torn down in order to save the remain
der of the building.
A telephone call summoned group
Of fire fighters from East Barre with
Ford truck loaded with hand chem
icals, the fire fighters from Williams
town, and the large American LaFrance
fire truck from this city with many
of the regulars and few OF the call
men. In few minutes after the call
was received at ll32, the large Barre
truck was speeding up the Graniteville
| hill at 80 miles an hour or better.
| Upon their arrival at the scene, the
house was entirely enveloped in flames
and the chemical contents of the large
tank were directed towards the Me.
Kenzie property Eighty gallons Of
\ this chemical used on the inside Of the
\ house together with many pals Of wa
| ter on the roof, suffocated the flames
and prevented disastrous fire, for
! the wind had shifted completely around
from the west to the east and was
! blowing towards several other homes in
1 the immediate vicinity. Between $500
and 500 damage was done to this
building before the flames could be
squeIched.
According to Mr.. Murray, he was in
bed with two Of his six children, the
other four. together with their mother
/ having gone to church, when he realized
the presence OF much smoke. He. in
yestigated and found volumes Of smoke
coming from the ceiling around the
| kitchen stoyepipe As there was but
one exit to the street and that in the
| kitchen. no time was lost to dress the
! children and himself and make for
safety. So quickly had the flames
spread that he could not even return
for trunk containing $50 in money
and this, together with 81 500 worth OF
| household furnishings, the clothes OF
the entire family and four tons OF coal
put in the building last week as his
winter supply Of fuel was lost com
pletely. He had no insurance whatever
on any of his goods
The building, owned by B. W Hook.
or Of Barre. was insured for $4,000, in
the Granite Mutual $1,000 and in the
Vermont Mutual $1,000.
With the spread of the alarm serv.
ices in a neighboring church Were sus
pended and the congregation excused
They voluntarily rendered assistance
but with no fire fighting system they
could do little towards smothering the
flames.
Fearing that the Mckenzie property
was going to be destroyed also, tht
four families, those Of Norman Mchen.
zie, John w. Macaulay, Alex A, Stew
art and Mrs. Etiie Graham, who nccu'
pied the building, moved their belong
| ings to the street; and other surround
| inc families also took the same pre-
caution. Mr.. and Mrs Murray and
family took refuge after the disaster
with Mr.. Murray's sister, Mrs. Charles
Beattie, who resides very near thC
scene Of the fire.
All day yesterday many people from
Barre visited the scene in automobile
or walked to see the smoldering ruins
of the large editiee. Later in the day
A bucket brigade was formed to pre-
vent sparks from rising and spreading
to other buildings.
yAcoNJr ETrNFpAT. SERVICE