The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-01-19
CHESTER HOTEL
BLOCK BURNED
Estimated Loss of 100000
In Central Part of the
Village
BELLOWS FALLS
ARMORY DAMAGED
Supposed Defective Wiring Started
This Blaze = Connecticut Valley
Poultry Association Lost Heavily -
Big Fire at Middletown Springs.

CHESTER, Jan. 19.-Fire, which is be-
pit of the Hotel Fullerton, early yester-
day morning destroyed the hotel, the
Chester Savings bank, the National Bank
of Chester, the Chester postoffiee and
the quarters of the Chester Moving Pie
ture company, all located in the hotel
block on Main street. During the fire,
Barton Hilliard, clerk at the hotel, was
overcome by smoke, Mrs. John A. Row
ell, wife of the hotel proprietor, barely
escaped from the building with her three
year-old daughter, and 10 guests, scantily
clad, were rescued from the blazing struc-
ture by means of ladders. The loss is
estimated at 100000, with insurance of
$4,000 on the hotel and its furnishings
| The Hotel Fullerton block, a three-story
wooden frame building, erected in 1891
| by the Chester Hotel company, was pur-
chased in 1917 by Mr. Rowell. who is
also proprietor of the Mount Tom hotel
in Holyoke, Mass.
The fire was discovered at $50 o'clock
by Mrs. Rowell, whose husband was in
Rutland. She smelled smoke and started
| from her room on the second floor for
the office on the first floor to give a tel
ephone alarm, but the density of the
smoke prevented her reaching the tele-
phone Retracing her steps, she awak-
ened the clerks, Barton HiIliard and Jaw
Graves, and they seized fire extinguish-
ers and hurried to the office to find flames
coming up through the floor from the
cellar, where 90 cords of wood were
stored 1t was during their unsuccessful
efforts to extinguish the flames that Mr.
Hilliard was overcome.
Mrs Rowell, after arousing the clerks
rushed through the hotel and alarmed the
guests. Then, with scarcely a minute tc
spare, she dashed down the back stairs
to safety, her baby daughter in her arms
Further egress by way of the front ol
rear entrances was by this time barred
by smoke, so that the guests, assembled
, on the second floor, were taken out OF
, ladders raised by members of the Ches
T ter Volunteer Fire department, who hat
reached the scene.
. The firemen were hampered in thei
/ work by the low temperature. A stit
( northwest gale not only famed tn
flames but served to defect the stream
r of water turned on the burning mass
When it was realized that the structur
o was doomed. entire attention was give
e to the bank vaults, which were deluge
8 with water Though no examination ha
yet been possible, it is believed that thei
contents will be found to be undamaget
The office fixtures of the banks, as we
as the equipment and mail in the post
office, all on the first floor, were entire1
destroyed. The fixtures and apparatu
of the Chester Moving Picture compan,
on the second floor, were a total los
v though small amount of film was save
At o'clock yesterday morning a ca
for help was sent to the Springfield fiji
department, and at 7.30 o'clock a detacl
ment of 20 men, under Commander Wi
d liam Taylor, arrived, bringing with the
( l05-horsepower combination mot,
50 truck.
IL But for their arrival it is probable th'
m the business and residential section
"a would have been wiped out. They we
y of great assistance in preventing the fl
St from spreading to the Fletcher bloc
ld owned by the George W. Hall estate,
II feet east of the hotel. One of the hot
st walls had fallen on the Fletcher bloc
10 which is occupied by w. E. Richardso
ne grocer. They also helped save the Che
90 ter drugstore, operated by W. II. Wheel
W & Sons, located 20 feet west of the hot
10 and the hotel stables, rented by Hen
W j. Davis.