Leominster, Massachusetts Fire
May
13, 1903
LEOMINSTER’S BIG FRIGHT.
A $60,000 Fire Loss and One Death by Accident in
Smoke.
Leominster, Mass., May 13 – Eight buildings
on fire at one time and the town threatened with
destruction, gave the townspeople such a scare,
this afternoon, as they never had before.
Property valued at $60,000 was destroyed, one
life was lost and many firemen sustained slight
injuries.
Just after 1 o’clock an alarm was sounded for
a blaze in the factory of the Se??ing
[illegible] comb factory in the southern part of
the town. Before the bells had ceased ringing
the alarm, another alarm came in from North
Leominster, two miles from the center in another
direction. The fire at the comb factory was
handled by the shop’s crew and caused but a few
dollars’ loss. The North Leominster blaze was
more serious.
The North Leominster fire originated in a
barn on the premises of
Phelps & Harrison,
tanners and curriers, being started by a boy
playing with matches in a hay loft. It spread to
the company’s storehouse, then jumped the road
and attacked the tannery and vat house,
consuming all these buildings. The firemen by
hard work saved the main tannery, which was of
wood, three stories in height.
The tannery is alongside the Boston & Maine
Railroad, which had several freight cars damaged
by fire before they could be hauled to places of
safety. While a shifter was engaged in this
work, MICHAEL LEONARD,
a section hand, became enveloped in the dense
smoke and wad run down by the engine and
instantly killed.
Flying embers were carried over the village,
setting fire to buildings half a mile away. A
large barn owned by
James A. Marshall and a barn on the
place of Mrs. Peter
Foley of West Acton, caught fire and
were destroyed.
To the northward an eighth of a mile on
another street, a barn belonging to the heirs of
Humphrey Murphy,
a house owned by Mrs.
Margaret McCue, and a house owned by
John Mulqueeney,
were set on fire by sparks from the
Marshall barn.
These were all damaged, but not seriously.
Phelps & Harrison
are the heaviest losers, placing their lass on
barn, storehouse and tannery, with their
contents, at between $50,000 and $60,000; fully
covered by insurance.
Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, ME 14 May
1903
Transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
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Leominster,
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