New Britain herald., 1928-02-13
mustered and appeared in uniform to aid the police where possible.
 Boy Scouts Assist

mustered and appeared in uniform
 to aid the police where possible. Boy Scouts Assist
 The Scouts warned churchgoers
 and curious spectators away from
 dangerous places and guided Sunday
 school children to the entrances used flor services Indoors Scouts guard
 ed doorways into that portion of the
 building where the fire was confined
 and informed Sunday school teach
 CTS and pupils what doors they were
 permitted to use. and which were closed.
 l The man upon whom the greatest
 amount of responsibility fell unex- pectedly was Rev. Theodore $. Dunn.
 Rev. MT. Dunn, who came here about a month ago to fill the vacancy i caused by the resignation of Frederic l.. Fay, as director of religious edu- cation and assistant pastor, had not 1 heard of the fire when aroused short ly before $ o'clock by Rev. William
 H. Alderson of the Methodist church. who called to offer the facilities ot his church. The new assistant. al- though he has not yet had an oppor- tunity to become acquainted with his people, arrived on the scene and in tthe absence of the pastor. Rev. Dr. George w. (. Hill, who is confined to his bel by illness, took charge. Within short time a notice was
 posted that Sunday school services
 would be held as usual. Sunday
 school departments were reorganiZ- ! ed to suit the occasion, doubled up where necessary and held their reg ular meetings while police and fire
 men went about their work in an other section of the building. The assistant pastor. whose army training did not fail him, then went
 to the Methodist church, where he had an appointment to address the Everymans Bible class at 9:30 o'clock, and delivered an address to
 more than 200 men. Later he called at the parsonage for conference with Dr. Hill and to discuss plans l for the future.
 JNCNS tO bSNNu ! Although MT Dunn had called at the parsonage before o'clock and had conferred with Mrs. Hill. out ot
 respect to Dr. Hills condition, the latter was not informed of the fire
 until about 1 o'clock. Reports from the parsonage later said the minister accepted the news philO-
 sophically. although it came as
 distinct shock and he was more or less concerned.
 The minister. who was not per mitted to have any visitors, except his assistant, was reported to have l stated that the worst loss outside of the actual material loss from the , fire, would be the interruption of the Sunday evening motion picture
 services, which he has been informed
 are doing much good in the con- immunity. He said after hearing the report of conditions. that he did not
 see why all the activities except the
 Sunday morning and evening serv-
 ices could not continue as usual. Churches Offer Facilities Dr. Hill also was much gratitied, it was stated at the parsonage. to receive messages from practically all of the downtown churches offering their facilities and buildings, The sister church, the First Congrega : tional. an official invitation, extend
 ed by the standing committee called
 by the Rev. Theodore Ainsworth
 Greene in special session. asked the members of the South church to join that church in regular worship. h. yitations from the First Con- gresational and Trinity Methodist churches to join the worship were printed on signs and posted on the South church lawn during the ire. After the recall was sounded,
 trustees of the church held an in
 formal meeting in the church or
 flee to discuss the situation. It was learned that the organ was prac- cally a total loss. 8 small section of which was not burned. showing pipes melted and twisted until they were worthless and much of the in- strument a heap of charcoal. The
 walls and ceiling were water soaked and some of the furniture was
 ruined.
 | Although Chief Noble placed the total loss at little more than ,S1oo.- GOO, church officials were reluctant to make any attempt to estimate the loss. especially in the face of the
 fact that Theodore C. Lewis of
 Lewis & Hitchcock. organ builders who have just finished overhauling
 the instrument placed the value of
 the organ at s75.aon. On this basis
 it is likely the entire loss may exceed
 s15o. .noo.
 Contractor William, IT. Allen, who
 has erected number of large struc-
 lures and who surveyed the damage
 with a great deal of interest, de-
 clined to make even a guess at the
 damage. "It would take an expert
 appraiser on church buildings a
 week or 10 days to tell" he said.
 Building Inspector A. N. Rutherford.
 who made thorough inspection Of
 the building, figured the height of the walls, etc. said the loss to the
 building alone would reach s75,ooo.
 This added to the s75,ooo organ
 would bring the loss to s150,hoo.
 No. blame is attached to any in
 dividual in connection with the or
 igin of the fire. The pipe. which
 fire officials say became overloaded and started the blaze has been in the same position for IS years, according to MT. Rutherford, and might have stayed there for 50 more without