Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1902 — WATERBURY IN RUINS. [ARTICLE]

WATERBURY IN RUINS.

Business Section ot Connecticut City Wiped Out by Fire. For ten hoars Sunday night and Monday morning flames, fanned by a high! wind; held sway over the business section of Waterbury, Conn., causing a loss; that will exceed $3,000,000. Nearly all' the best buildings standing in a space; bounded on the north by Exchange place,, on the west by Bank street, on the south' by Grand street and on the east by f South Main street were wiped out. The first fire, which started in the. store of the Reid & Hughes Dry Goods! Company, on Bank street, was not con- ; sidered under control before $3,000,0001 worth of property had .been destroyed,: About the time the firemen supposed! they had subdued the flames a second; fire broke out, in the Scoril House, the| city’s leading hotel, remodeled by thej late Judge E. C. Lewis a few years ago; at an expense of about $75,000, and the establishment was wrecked. The occu- : pants of the hotel were chmpelled to; seek the streets in their night clothes. With the ringing of A second alarm, the entire city was thrown into a panic. There was a fierce gale, and sparks from 1 the burning hotel were driven in lurid showers over a great area. The occupants of buildings in the path of the wind prepared to leave. Although' the Waterbury fire department jyas reinforced from near-by cities, it was impossible for a time to stay the progress of the flames. The fire burned over four acres of the city’s best business section. Among the prominent buildings destroyed are the block occupied by the Reid & Hughes Company', the plant of the Waterbury American, the Masonic Temple, the Seovil and Franklin houses, the W. L. Douglas Shoe Company, the Johnson Block, the Salvation Army Workingmen’s Home and scores of other buildings. About a hundred business houses are burned out. During -the night the Mayor was in communication with Gov. McLean and! the militia wits called out. Companies A and G, containing about 120 men, were detailed about' the' fire district. The City, was practically lender martial law, the blue uniforms of the guardsmen appearing on every side. The armory, the city;

hall, the churches and other public places were turned into temporary shelters.