Smyrna times., 1930-12-24

merce street ana put III place III
front of the store house. The
water was poured in to run out
| like a sieve until the cracks filled
up. Here were dozen houses
nearly ready to be sac-ificed by
the culpable neglect, shall we say,
Of the town commissioners in not
keeping the apparatus in order.
Some of the wells were dry al
ready and there was not drop to
waste, but finally sufficient was
got in it to throw stream, but it
had hardly got to work before the
air chamber burst and it was
useless thing, and indignant ex-
pressions were heard of running it
! into the fire to expiate the folly of
its custodians. AT this time the
I long shed at the east side, not
from falling fire but from the in
tense heat, burst out in flames
from end to end simultaneously, as
did also the dwelling of Stephen
Van Fossen at its extreme end.
The Delaware" took its position
on Pearle Street and commenced to
play on the dwelling last named.
This was found in few moments
to be hopeless job, and the roof
of the back part of the dwelling of
Samuel Griffin on the opposite side
corner Commerce and Pearle hav-
ing ignited, it was turned on it
with good results. The people were
driven from the extreme diagonal
corner, the residence of Joseph
Smithers two hundred feet distant
by the heat, and water poured on
his roof ran down warm and
smoking. The person on top hav-
ing to keep his face covered be-
tween times and dip it in the
bucket before he could endure the
heat to sprinkle. Then was the
season of greatest alarm. Wom-
ems countenances bespoke terror
and dismay, and brave men looked
at each other with blanched faces.
n every side the flames were ready
to burst forth, and where it would
end, with no appliances and but a
moiety of water, God only could
tell. Mr.. VanGasken, one of the
Town commissioners hurried to the
telegraph office with a dispatch to
the Mayor of Wilmington to send
engines and all the hose they could
bring, our nearest supply of water
for a general conf1agration being
the mill pond. Then it was that
mems bravery and endurance were
put to the test. The dwellings of
Rev. J. A. Brindle, Jesse S. HUFF
fington, Reese Taylor, William p
Smithers, William Wilds, James
VanWinkle and store of Fl. H.Huf-
fington, which were within sixty
or seventy feet Of the front were
thought impossible to save, but
fortunately the tower that formed
a front Of the building which had
stood as perpetual menace to the
safety of this part of the town was
the last to burn, and thus shielded
them from much of the intense
heat of the building. When it be-
came enrapt in flames, and for the
five or ten minutes before it fell.
when every knot was oozing out
turpentine, paint smoking and
scorching, door transums cracking,
it was period when moments
were valuable and those moments
could not be measured by ordinary
computation. One minute of neg
lect might have put the whole line
in blaze. Only few did or
could stand the heat, but they saw
ed the row, and how much more it
is impossible to tell. Every roof
had man on it, in one case so
hot that one of them had to dip
his feet in the bucket of water to
cool them; and below men would
run out, splash water on the front
and retreat. The wells in the
neighborhood were mostly ex-
hausted and some of it was
brought from a considerable dis
tance; when it ran short, mud and