The headlines of the Biddeford Journal on August 16, 1907 read as follows:

Outside of the triangle, the magnificent Sea Shore House on the southerly side of Old Orchard street, just east of the Boston & Maine railroad station, was burned to the earth.
The superstructure about the shore end of the steel pier was burned and the booths extending out on the pier for nearly a hundred feet shared the same fate. Only by ripping up the flooring of the pier beyond, so that the greedy flames were unable to stretch across the yawning gap, with the rising tide beneath was it possible to save the fire from crawling the entire length of the great steel erection and igniting the casino at the end.
In the central portion of the triangle and along the base the dozens of cottages and residences that occupied the space between the Boston & Maine railroad tracks and the shore, running easterly for fully a mile as far as Brisson avenue, were all destroyed. About the only building that escaped was the Boyden House owned by Charles Boyden. In some unexplainable manner this house, surrounded on all sides by flames that leaped high in to the air, escaped destruction. Everything east west and south of it went up in smoke.
THE START OF THE FIRE
The fire originated in the annex of the Hotel Olympia, which was west of the railroad tracks and just beyond the line of buildings including Cleaves hotel and restaurant, that runs along the West Side of railroad walk northerly from Old Orchard Street.
About fifteen minutes before 8 o’clock a young woman employed at the Hotel Emerson was in one of the rooms in the upper part of this building which was used as a lodging place for nearly all of the help employed by the Emerson.
As nearly as can be ascertained the young woman in some way accidentally overturned a lighted lamp over which she was heating tongs for curling her hair.
The fire communicated itself quickly to the flammable materiel with which the room was filled and in an almost incredibly short space of time, the flames burst through the windows and spread in all directions through the interior of the tall four-story building. The young woman fled with a scream and attracted the attention of the other occupants of the building. Simultaneously people on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, including the Chief of Police William J. Mewer, who was engaged in conversation with a newspaper reporter, noticed the fire. The chief started on the run to ring the fire bell, which is located in the Odd Fellows building on the south side of Old Orchard Street above Porter’s block.
The cry of fire was quickly taken up, however and passed along the street like lightning, so that by the time Chief Mewer had got to the avenue somebody had got hold of the bell rope and was turning the clanging metal over and over in a wild endeavor to get the fire department on the scene as rapidly as possible.
FLAMES SPREAD RAPIDLY
The Old Orchard department is a volunteer organization the members of which were scattered all over the resort. This of course, made the response somewhat slow, though to the credit of the men it is to be said that they got into their gear quickly, considering the handicap under which they labored. The hose wagon and the one engine of the department are kept in the basement of town hall at the head of Old Orchard Street opposite from St. Margaret’s church. Working like tigers the few who reached the town hall first ran out the apparatus hitched it as soon as they could and hurried down the hill to the scene of the fire.
Meanwhile, the Olympia annex where the fire started was a roaring mass of forked flames that shot high in the air sending sparks across the railroad track and among the dozens of buildings on the easterly side of the tracks.
By the time the firemen arrived the flames had jumped across from the annex to the Hotel Olympia itself and were rapidly eating their way through the roof and walls. The firemen coupled a hose onto a hydrant and began playing on the flames but the pressure was not very strong and the little stream of water that would not reach as high as the eaves of the burning building and made no impression.
HELP IS SENT FOR
It was quickly realized that there was imminent danger of the fire spreading into Cleaves buildings and the other structures on the West Side of railroad walk.
Alive to the situation, Chief of police Mewer without any further delay and within less then ten minutes after the fire was discovered, called up the central telephone exchange in the city and through the operators had messages sent to Biddeford, Saco and Portland requesting that assistance be hurried to Old Orchard with all possible speed. At the same time communication was established with the Boston & Maine officials in Portland and arrangements made for a special train to bring out apparatus.
THE TWIN CITIES RESPON
Immediately after the receipt of the message from Old Orchard the fire chiefs of Biddeford and Saco had calls sounded on the local alarms for the members of the two departments to assemble at the engine houses. The response was rapid and in a short time the Saco’s Governor Fairfield Steamer with a crew of men was headed down over the road toward the beach.
In Biddeford, the rather crippled condition of the department, owing to the fact that the engine houses have been torn down to make room for the erection of the new fire station, delayed the starting of an engine, but members of the department, equipped with axes, pike poles and other fire fighting implements boarded the first Old Orchard bound electric that came along.
Soon afterwards the Richard Vines steamer was started over the road and reached the fire about 9 o’clock.
Meanwhile the fire had spread with alarming speed and by the time the local apparatus got to the beach the fire had gained such headway that half a dozen fire engines could have effected little towards staying further progress of the immense blaze.
The local engines had no reducers with them when they arrived, so they were unable to get into effective work. The couplings of their hose connections would not fit the Old Orchard hydrants and there was further delay while the engines were hauled over to the pond in Sea Side Park where they were first able to get water.
FLAMES JUMP EASTERLY
Twenty minutes after the fire broke out, sparks and burning embers ignited the buildings on the easterly side of the Boston & Maine railroad tracks owned by Con Whittemore and John J. Traynor. The former used as a billiard and poolroom and the latter as a summer residence in the upper stories. Efforts to stop the spread of the fire with an ordinary hand hose were of no avail whatever.
Within a few minutes more the shooting gallery south of the Olympia Annex caught and from there the fire jumped upon the end of the building of which Cleaves café was located, thus dooming the entire row of three story buildings long railroad walk as far as Old Orchard Street. The occupants began hastily to move out their effects, but the fire shot along the solid front of wooden buildings too rapidly to allow them to save much more than a few of the more valuable articles and papers in them. In this row of buildings besides the places owned by Mr. Cleaves were several fruit stores and Egyptian bazaars, shell counters, pop corn stands, candy stores, etc. ending with Horrigan & Abbotts drug store at the end adjacent to Old Orchard Street. In the upper stories were sleeping quarters occupied by employees at the Cleaves House, one or two offices and clothes pressing establishments.
THE TOWN SEEMED DOOMED
While the fire rapidly ate along this row of buildings west of the track, its execution on the other side was even more rapid and fierce.
Cleaves fine bowling alleys, west of the buildings owned by John J. Traynor, went down before the fire. At the same time the fire started the other way down East Grand Avenue, enveloping the New Palmer House, owned by Archie Jaques of this city. This large building was a seething furnace in half an hour after the fire began. Southerly from Cleaves’ bowling alleys the fire leaped across the McDonald’s drug store and from there communicated itself to the end of the Alberta. Rapidly stretching down through the buildings east of the railroad tracks the fire caught in several buildings below the New Palmer House.

FISKE HOUSE
Leaping East Grand Avenue the great firebrands landed on the roof of the kitchen and dining room of the Fiske House. This magnificent summer hostelry, known all over the country, one of the finest and most valuable pieces of property in Old Orchard was well on fire by half past eight. It was then seen that nothing could prevent the destruction of the hotel and the guests hurriedly got what few belongings they could get together and vacated the hotel, carrying their trunks, clothing and other effects out onto the broad expanse of sand to the east, the tide being out.
FISKE HOUSE BURNS

There was no time to get out furniture or bulky articles. The flying embers swirling through the air lighted on the big hotel in a hundred places and the rapidity with which the flames spread was a marvel.
Rapidly great columns of flame shot up the pointed cupolas at the top of the hotel and spent themselves in air at the height of fifty feet or more.
The fire had by this time added to the intensity of the wind, which blew a perfect gale straight down the line of the shore and East Grand Avenue. The blazing brands hurled through the hard pines, blew in at the open windows of cottages, settled through open skylights in the roofs and with awe inspiring, race horse speed the conflagration swept through this part of Old Orchard, licking up with avidity everything in its course.
THE ALDINE CATCHES FIRE
A ways down from the Fiske House was located the Aldine. Next beyond it was the Lawrence. These caught fire on the roof almost as soon as the Fiske did and their guests had to beat a hasty retreat, as did the guests at the Fiske.

THE ALDINE
At the same time the fine sea wall cottages between the Fiske and the Aldine rapidly took fire, one after the other in quick succession.
The wind fairly drove the flames down this stretch and by a quarter of nine about every building as far down as the Lawrence was in process of combustion. Along with the cottages and hotels located on this tract the bathhouses, tin type galleries, popcorn booths and dozens of small wooden buildings and shanties in which businesses characteristic of a great summer resort furnished food for the flames.
On East Grand Avenue, the Vespers, the Lewiston, the Marlboro and the Linwood, all smaller hotels, were burned in rapid succession.

LAWRENCE HOUSE
At one time fully 40 acres of land, covered with hotels and cottages, many of the latter among the finest at the beach, and including also the saw mill and lumber yard owned by William J. Mewer, were almost a solid sheet of roaring flames. Still on and on the fire drove, leaving nothing spared as far as Brisson Avenue except the Boyden House. (The Boyden House was located where the Executive Motel now stands).
FIRE IN ALL DIRECTIONS
While the fire was sweeping down through this territory, it also ran south. Desperate efforts were made with a stream of water to prevent it getting a foothold on the Hotel Irving owned by Mrs. G. A., Googins, but it was beyond human power to interpose any barrier.

The Irving took fire on the northwest corner soon after flames got into the rear of the Alberta. The wind blew back the fire somewhat, so that it did not make such rapid progress through these two houses as it did in the Fiske and the houses the other side.
But steadily the flames crept along. They ate through the Irving unchecked and the next thing in their path was the Emerson, the great, ill looking tinder box, five stories high, formerly called the Velvet, constructed by Hebert L Hildreth a number of years ago.
THE EMERSON GOES UP

ALBERTA THE EMERSON
Probably every person who has visited Old Orchard since it was built has remarked on the possibilities this great structure offered for a fire. The flimsy balconies that ran along the south side of it from top to bottom with every floor, the dozens of parapets and small cupolas that stuck out from its top, its over elaborate decking out with ornamental exterior finish. All contributed instinctively to suggest to anybody who noted its appearance at all, a structure that sooner or later was destined to make a spectacular fire. The peculiarity of its construction, which was showy rather than substantial, insured its certain and rapid combustion if ever it once caught fire and the flames got headway.
By the time the fire had leveled the Irving it had also forced its way through the Alberta. The Emerson was now on fire and raging flames from the Irving and the Alberta were licking at its corners and gaudy adornments. As though they were tissue paper the eager flames enveloped the balconies, cornices and columns of the great structure. From bottom to top of the five stories and six in some portions of it, the fire raced, and swirled around the dozens of flagpoles that surrounded the flat main roof, swallowing up the flags, pennants and streamers that waved in the breeze. Inside of 15 minutes from the time it took fire, the Emerson was completely ablaze and within 15 minutes more the hotel had entirely disappeared.
The destruction of the Emerson was the great feature of the fire from its spectacular side and the thousands of people who watched it burn experienced a sight rarely met with.

SEASHORE HOUSE THE EMERSON PIER ENTRANCE
While the building itself was of cheap construction, its furnishings were of the best. It was fitted throughout with costly furniture. Its floors were covered with heavy velvet carpets. Its hundreds of rooms were equipped in a most luxuriant manner. It was filled with expensive tapestries and draperies. There was no opportunity to save any of this costly stuff and it was lost in the general wreck.
Far out to sea the glare of this burning tinderbox extended itself lighting up a number of launches filled with people that were lying off shore as a good vantage point to watch the fire.
SEA SHORE HOUSE DESTROYED
Across the street from the Emerson was the Sea Shore Hotel, owned by Frank G. Staples. This has always been one of the best hotels at Old Orchard, patronized by exclusive guests, many of whom were regular guests from year to year. It was a three-story hotel, carefully appointed and constructed in a thorough manner.
During the early part of the fire, as the wind was blowing in a direction to take the flying embers and leaping flames away from this hotel, not much fear was felt for its safety. Even after the Emerson caught fire, the apprehension was not great. But when the Emerson had got thoroughly on fire the danger rapidly became imminent. Streams of water were directed upon the north side of the house. They did no good. Several men, one of whom was Frank Cole, the cigar manufacturer of Biddeford, who had been watching the fire, entered the house and told Mr. Staples that in their opinion that hotel would catch fire in a short time. They generously offered their assistance to save anything there was in the house of particular value.
This thoroughly alarmed Mr. Staples and the guests were told that it was deemed advisable to leave the house, saving what effects they could. In less that five minutes the front of the hotel next to Old Orchard Street had caught fire. The boarders got their trappings in order as soon as they could and vacated, but most of them were unable to carry out their property after they had collected it. Mr. Cole hastily removed several large plate glass mirrors on the first floor; each of them valued at $50 and carried them outside in safety. In the dinning room was an immense combination silver-plated coffee and tea urn.

Sea Shore House
This was unscrewed from the fastenings and also removed to a place of safety. Some of the dining room linen and silver was then carried out. Then it got too hot to enter the hotel. The crowd saw nothing on the beach burn with more regret that this hotel.
The fire burned through the hotel proper and then attacked the stables and annex in the rear where the help lodged. These were not entirely destroyed as the Old Orchard steamer kept water playing on them, and they were so situated with reference to the hotel, although connected with it, that the water had considerable effect in beating back the fire. This was as far as the fire stretched south of Old Orchard Street and in fact was the only building on that side of the street to burn.
As the fire swept up through the buildings on railroad walk suddenly there came the ear splitting report of an explosion.
DETAILS OF EXPLOSION
The explosion was in the drug store of Horrigan and Abbott, which is located across the street from then Boston & Maine railroad station. Without any previous warning there was a terrific roar and report and the bystanders say that a soda tank shot out of the building and across the street to a post in front of the block which is located in the rear of the railroad station. In this set of buildings are several stores and the Jones House.
HEAD BLOWN OFF
The large square telegraph pole was cut off and the tank or parts of the pole struck a man nearby and severed his head from his body. His head was found some distance from his body, as others rushed to his assistance.
The man who had not been identified up to 10 o’clock this morning met instant death. Eyewitnesses say that following the explosion they saw the remains of the soda tank fly through the air like lightning until it struck the post. They then saw the man totter and fall and were horrified beyond expression to see that he had been decapitated.
No such accident has ever taken place at Old Orchard before and it is hoped that one never will again. It is thought that this was all so quick that the victim never knew what had hit him and the he could have suffered no pain. His body was removed to Saco.
It is thought that the man has been identified by Undertaker Bradbury of Saco as H. G. Angell of Attleboro, Mass. a key was found on his person and was marked, " Room #2, Hotel Alberta."
The register, which was not destroyed in the fire, shows that the Attleboro man was occupying the room referred to. An effort was being made this afternoon to complete the identification, through telephone communication with Attleboro.
CLERGYMAN TERRIBLY HURT
Near him at the time was Rev. Rufus Horton Jones, rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Saco. He was thought to have been struck by a piece of the telegraph pole when the soda tank cut it off. The blow was an awful one and the Saco clergyman was rendered unconscious. He was attended to by Drs. Slater and McGillicudy of Lewiston who were within call at the time of the dreadful accident. They made a hasty examination and thought he had suffered a compound fracture of the skull. Arrangements were made for his removal to the Trull hospital in Biddeford and he was taken there as soon as possible. At the hospital he remained unconscious and it was seen that his injuries were likely to prove fatal. He was given every attention during the night.
A THIRD VICTIM
A third victim of the soda tank explosion was a man who was nearly killed but who had not been identified up to noon today. He was near all the others and was struck with terrific force by something; no one seems to know just what. His left arm was shattered and he was rendered unconscious. Later the man was identified as Philip Perreault, who lives on Foss Street in Biddeford. It was not thought that he would recover. He was picked up by other spectators nearby and carried away from the scene of the fire to a place on Staples Street where Dr. F.E. Small of Biddeford and Dr. D.F. Pike of Saco attended him temporarily.
STILL ANOTHER INJURED
There was still another victim of the tank explosion, he being Melvin P. Morrell of 25 Green Street, Salem,
Mass. He is a Boston & Maine engineer and was down to Biddeford for the day to visit Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Stimson at their home on Hooper Street in Biddeford. While here he thought he would go to the beach and was there just in time to sustain a fracture of his left leg and his collarbone was also broken. He was attended to by physicians at the beach and was then removed to the Webber Hospital in Biddeford.
The injured man is well known down this way, as he was once an engineer on one of the scoot trains, which run between Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard and Portland. When he was injured he was walking with Eugene Hanson, mailing clerk, in the Biddeford post office. They were but a very few feet from the man whose head was blown off and during the excitement that followed. Mr. Hanson lost track of his friend. He could find no trace of him and was unable to learn his whereabouts until this morning at the Journal office.
This completes the list of killed and seriously injured in the explosion of the soda tank. It was a most appalling accident and no accident in York County was ever attended with more tragic features.
FIFTH MAN INJURED
Aside from the people killed or injured in the explosion there was one other man badly hurt. He was Samuel Emerson proprietor of the Emerson Hotel. He was removing furniture from the Emerson annex, which is also known as the Velvet annex and is the place where the employees of the Emerson live. It is across the railroad from the hotel and some little distance from the hotel with which it is connected. It is back of Thomas L. Cleaves’ restaurant and is located on East Grand Avenue. It was here where the fire started and Mr. Emerson was one of the firsts to try to check it and also save some of the property inside.
PICKED UP UNCONSCIOUS
After the fire had been in progress a short time he was found lying in the middle of the street in an unconscious condition. He was removed to a place of safety and revived later. It was found that his face and hands had been severely burned. Hospital treatment was what he needed and he was taken to Webber Hospital in Biddeford. Mr. Emerson is a man of about 66 years old and the experience will be a hard one for him.
FOOT BADLY CUT
Another man, whose name could no be learned, received a very bad cut on one foot during the progress of the fire. He was removing some goods from a window when he slipped and fell to the ground. It was thought that he stepped on a piece of broken glass, thus inflicting a deep and very painful wound across the upper part of this foot below the ankle. It bled profusely and his condition was most pitiful.
FIRE SPREADS WEST
After burning the drug store on the corner of Railroad Walk and Old Orchard Street the flames started up the latter thoroughfare in the direction of the town hall. The building occupied by Scamman, the newsdealer, took fire. Along this part of the street were a number of wooden buildings containing photograph studios lunch counters and variety bazaars. These went down and then the fire reached across Milliken Avenue and got a hold on the big building owned by J. I. Mackey, known as the Florida House, containing apartments in the two upper stories and Mackey’s old time variety store, second hand establishment, cut rate ticket office and curio emporium.
The Biddeford and Saco fire engines were throwing water on this part of the burning section from the artificial pond in SeaSide Park, but they were unable to save Mackey’s property. Beyond Mackey’s establishment the fire got into the livery stables run by William Whittier of Old Orchard and Arthur S. Hamilton of Biddeford. When the fire got up as far as the building owned by Dr. James Smith, the efforts of the firemen aided by the fact that the wind was then favoring them, succeeded in staying further progress.
STATION IN DANGER
On the south side of Old Orchard Street the fire several times threatened the destruction of the Boston & Maine railroad station and the Porter block west of it. Two or three times it seemed as if they would take fire in spite of everything that could be done with limited water supply. All of the tickets, valuable papers, etc., in the railroad station were hurriedly removed by order of Station Agent Fernald, in momentary expectation that the building would burn. The flames got no foothold, however, and both structures escaped injury except for a bad scorching from the heat of the fire on the other side of the avenue.
FIRE UNDER CONTROL
By 11:30 o’clock the fire was well under control. Down a ways on East Grand Avenue the Portland firemen were stationed with their engine. They kept retreating before the fire until they reached the more sparsely settled portion of the beach some distance beyond the Lawrence House. At Brisson Avenue they were able to make an effective stand and the fire got no further in that direction.

DAMAGE DONE TO PIER
The destruction of the Emerson carried with it all the superstructure at the head of the steel pier, including the big variety store of Nathan Woolf of Boston, although Mr. Woolf managed to save a good deal of his goods by prompt action. The fire burned a number of booths on the shore end of the pier and the offices of Manager Frederick Yates of the Pier Company. The plank flooring of the pier burned out some 50 feet or so, but by tearing up ahead of the fire a portion of the planking further progress toward the end of the steel structure was prevented.

After midnight the ruins of the burned area flamed and smoked with a red flickering glare, gradually dying out for want of anything further to consume.
DYNAMITE USE
When the conflagration was at its height there was some idea of attempting to stay it by the use of explosives. There was no dynamite to be had in Old Orchard and so a telephone message was sent to Biddeford for Frank Cole, the cigar man and dealer in fireworks and guns, to take what powder he had on hand and start for the beach with it. Mr. Cole had only 50 pounds where he could easily get at it, as the law does not allow the explosive to be kept in large quantities in the center of the city. He got this into a team and went down to the beach. It was proposed that he should make an attempt to blow up the stables and annex of the Sea Shore House, to obviate the possibility of the fire spreading further south over the thickly settled portion of the beach running from the Montreal House to Ocean Park. Mr. Cole advised against this. He had powder enough to do the job, but there was no way of properly confining it. Unless it could be confined he said it would be useless to attempt to explode it with any success.
Meanwhile somebody had brought down Joseph Faucher, foreman for the Biddeford & Saco Water Company, in a team from Biddeford with 50 pounds of dynamite.
Then there were proposals to blow up the Boston & Maine railroad station. Porter’s block and what there was left of the Sea Shore outbuildings. The attempt was not made; however, to set off any of the dynamite and it is probably a most fortunate thing that it was not made.
There were thousands of people crowded in and around these buildings. Had dynamite been put under the buildings and set off the chances are that the flying timbers from the blown up structure would have been spread all over that part of the resort. Most likely somebody would have been injured; it not killed, by the debris. Finally the dynamite was carried over into the field near Sea Side park, where it was piled up in the open to be used, if thought necessary, to prevent the fire from spreading up Old Orchard Street towards the town hall. Luckily, it was not needed.
SCENES ON THE SANDS
It was estimated that fully 5,000 people who had been staying in the hotels and other buildings that were burned were driven out into the cold night air. There they were scattered all over the beach and for that matter all over the central portion of the resort, homeless, some having saved a few of their clothes, others totally divest of everything they brought with them to the beach. Without any place to find shelter or lay their heads for the rest of the night, with no breakfast in sight for the morning, many of them without immediately available funds.
It was a dubious prospect for hundreds of them for a day or two until they could establish connection with their permanent places of abode or get to them from Old Orchard. Many of them had carried their trunks down onto the sand and were ruefully standing or sitting around on them, almost thunder struck by the sudden turn of events. The beach, for a half mile either side of the pier, was dotted with these groups of summer visitors and other unfortunates, many of whom included employees of the hotels.
When the houses on the waterfront began to burn, men, women and children, came tumbling out, all carrying bundles, boxes, clothing and whatever they were able to grab up in their hurried exit. It was a common sight to see two young women probably companions sharing the same room for their annual summer outing, hurry down over the sea wall with their arms full of shirt waists and hat boxes.
In the excitement many of them lost some of their bundles and became separated from one another. Women could be seen in all directions wringing their hands and with tears streaming down their faces asking everybody who came along what was going to become of them. Mothers with infants done up in shawls and quilts were a common sight.
BEACH WAS LITTERED
The beach was littered with trunks, boxes, articles of clothing, pieces of furniture, baby carriages, and bundles done up in paper. Every now and then there would be a family group from grandparents down to the youngest generation. Rich and poor, guests and servants were huddled together; everybody losing sight of social distinction in the common calamity that had overwhelmed all alike. Numbers of people had brought from the hotels, quilts and blankets and wrapped these around their bodies to keep warm. It was a cool night for this time of year and the wind was cutting, becoming colder as the midnight hours came on and the temperature kept lowering.
Up on the large grounds between the Old Orchard House and the railroad there was a similar condition of affairs as on the waterfront. Forced by the cold night air to take some measures for their protection many of the people got together wood and boxes and built bonfires on the sands, around which they hovered. Some few had managed to get hold of mattresses and wrapping up in blankets they lay down after midnight and tried to rest.
As it was the very height of the season all of the hotels were full to overflowing before the fire. The result was that a bare handful of the shelterless crowd was able to find rooms for the night at the Old Orchard House, the Western, the Montreal, the Abbott, the Atlantic, the Everett and the Ocean House, the only hostelries of any size at all left standing.
PATH OF THE FIRE
With exception of the Boyden house, which was left standing in the midst of the ravaged territory east and north of the railroad tracks everything in the path of the flames was completely devoured.

Everything combustible was leveled to the ground and consumed completely, leaving nothing but black ashes and twisted iron rods and nails. There were no half burned structures to be seen after the fire had done its work. It was as though there had be a terrific shock, which brought every wall flat to the ground, before it took fire.
Many persons who have seen large fires in the big cities were struck with this peculiar character of the ruins and remarked upon it frequently. It was undoubtedly due to the fact that all of the burned territory was covered exclusively with wooden buildings. With no brick wall to interfere with the elements they rushed along unchecked, having everything their own way. Furthermore, there has been no rain since August 4, which was a week ago last Sunday. In the intervening period everything exposed to the weather had become dry as tinder. A more favorable time for the destructive operation of a great fire could not have been selected.
EXODUS FROM TWO CITIES
As soon as it became known up town that there was a big fire under way at the beach there was a general exodus from Biddeford and Saco to the scene. Between 8 o’clock and 10, thousands of spectators rushed to the beach in any way that they could get there. The first electrics going down Main Street Biddeford, after the alarm sounded here, were rapidly crowded with people, who hung upon the running boards, hung to the fenders and some even crawled on the tops. Extra cars were started out from the car barn and for several hours the riding was limited only by the capacity of the cars. The Boston & Maine trains were jammed solid full of people. Many made use of automobiles and carriages. By way of Portland there were many spectators also, extra cars crowded with the sightseers being run out over the Portland road.
The trainmen on the Old Orchard railroad from Camp Ellis made up a special train of observation cars and practically the entire population along the line, together with many from Hills Beach who got ferried over to witness the unusual sight.
Members of the Biddeford and Saco police forces went down to help in maintaining order.
MUSIC DURING THE FIRE
Several pianos that had been taken out of the hotels were standing on the beach and some of the younger guests who were inclined to take a philosophical view of the situation, determined no to be depressed by the horror of the situation, gathered around the instruments and spent the long hours of the night in song.
One peculiar sight in the midst of the excitement, attendant upon the evacuation of the sea wall buildings, was a man running up and down the beach with two legs of lamb thrown over his shoulders. He seemed to have completely lost his head.
A woman with a cage containing a parrot in one hand and with a parasol over her head held in the other was another comical appearance. The parasol finally caught fire from a burning ember that landed on it and the woman collapsed completely. Spectators then took charge of her and tried to quiet her.
MAYOR FITZGERALD ACTIVE
Mayor John F. Fitzgerald of Boston, who with John F. Twomey of Biddeford had charge of the concert for the benefit of St. Margaret’s church, was active during the progress of the fire and assisted greatly in relieving the situation. The hustling young mayor, who had rooms at the Old Orchard House, assisted the firemen in getting their apparatus under way at the start of the fire. He got Portland over the telephone and requested that both fire apparatus and police officers be sent to the help of the stricken resort. There were some complaints made that thieves were looting some of the property taken from the houses and in response to the mayor’s message City Marshall Warterhouse of Portland sent out a delegation of his men to guard the property and help preserve order.
As the fire broke out before 8 o’clock the proposed concert was abandoned. Mayor Fitzgerald also called up the Boston & Maine officials in Boston and made arrangements with them to send cars to the beach this morning to get out of town, those who had no place to stay and who were without means of buying tickets without the receipt of money from their homes. He also requested that some provisions be sent from Boston, knowing that in the morning there would be a great scarcity of food. The mayor had a narrow escape from being struck with the flying soda siphon that shot out of the drug store with such injurious effects. He was crossing Railroad Square when the explosion occurred and the siphon cleared his head by not mote the 10 feet. The mayor gave up his room at the hotel for the accommodation of ladies from the other hotels.
WIRES OUT OF ORDER
After the fire got under good headway nearly all the wiring systems of the town went out of commission. The telephone system was the only one in working order after 9:30 and this was badly crippled. From 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock it was impossible to get communication with Boston, except by a single line of wire. This was in great demand both by people sending private messages and the newspaper correspondents for the morning dailies.
Later in the night, the Telephone Company by way of its wires to Portland and thence to Boston established better communication. The Western Union wires and those of the Postal Service were put out of business early and it was impossible to get word through either by way of Portland or Boston. The electric wires were down and all lights depending on them were out. This did not make much difference close to the fire, as the flames made it light enough to read a paper by.
After 2 o’clock, however, when the glare of the fire had died down the place was in total darkness and it was difficult picking one’s way along the streets, they were so littered and piled up with stuff carried out from burning and threatened buildings. All of the hotels and houses left standing that illuminate by electricity were greatly inconvenienced by the loss of the circuit, but kerosene lamps were brought out and made to do good service. The Old Orchard House has an acetylene plant and this enabled it to keep the interior of the building illuminated.
TRACKS BADLY TWISTED
The service of the Boston & Maine railroad was badly interrupted by the fire. All western division regular through trains had to be sent over the Eastern Division between Portland and North Berwick. The short locals between Old Orchard and Biddeford, were kept running however. The tracks for as distance of more that a hundred yards north of Old Orchard Street, where the fire raged the hottest on both sides of the railroad line, were twisted all out of shape by the fierce heat. The great steel rails were bent and turned like writhing snakes.
About 1 o’clock, work trains from both the east and the west arrived and the crews of men on them were at once put to work getting the tracks back into proper condition for the resumption of traffic, which was re-established early this morning. At 4 o’clock this morning an extra train in the charge of Conductor Don Fisher was run up to Biddeford from the beach for the accommodation of those who remained at the fire scene until daylight, which began to break over the ruined and desolate conflagration at that time.

THE SITUATION TODAY, August 16th
Old Orchard presented a sorry sight when the sun rose this morning. Between sunset and sunrise the beach had undergone one of the greatest changes that any summer resort ever did. Nothing but smoldering ruins was left in place of the once fine looking summer hotels and cottages.
People slept all night on the beach, or rather tried to sleep. Among the things taken out were quite a number of mattresses and a few blankets. The homeless people got in between these and made every effort to keep from getting fatal colds. It was one of the coolest nights since last spring. It was the hardest night that the great majority of the summer visitors ever spent and it will be most fortunate if serious results do not follow to many.
The refugees also passed the night on the lawn of the Old Orchard House, the only one of the big hotels that the fire left. Of course a great many found shelter in the smaller hotels, cottages and houses that were not destroyed, but the number of vacationists and others who were cast adrift without any warning was far too great to make it possible to care for all of them.
Hundreds of summer visitors down the beach toward Grand Beach packed their trunks when the fire was seen coming and took them out of the houses. They had to move them again and again during the progress of the fire and were still looking after them when daylight arrived this morning. It was no uncommon thing last night to see women aiding the men carrying trunks to some place of safety.
GUESTS LEAVE BEACH
There was a great exit of summer people on all the trains today. The first morning train for Boston had 16 loaded passenger cars. The next one was also very heavy.
Early in the morning the people began to rush for telephones to report to relatives as to their welfare. The telephone station at Old Orchard could not begin to accommodate the patrons. The service was in a crippled condition, anyway and this made the matter all the worse. A large crew of men worked all night to connect the circuits which had been melted off and resumed their work again today, many of them stopping only long enough to get something to eat.
REBUILDING DISCUSSED
There was a great deal of discussion at Old Orchard this morning as to whether the big hotels and others would be rebuilt or not. The proprietors have not yet had time to make any definite plans as to what they will do. However, it seems to be the general opinion that the hotels will be rebuilt and will perhaps be a finer than they were previous to their destruction. The beach, the greatest attraction of all at the popular resort, is still there. There are of course many cottages and smaller hotels left at the campground as that section was not touched.
Old Orchard is steadily growing in popularity every year and is drawing more people every year. Most of the hotels which were lost have been doing a fine business for several years and it seems to be the general opinion that while it may take some time, yet in the end the burned structures will be replaced and that Old Orchard has not yet seen its best days as a beautiful summer resort.
James P. Rundle stated this morning that it was the intention of the management of Old Orchard pier to have some wooden steps built onto this at once and continue the regular entertainment’s and dances there during the rest of the season without interruption.
ECHOES OF CONFLAGRATION
The tracks on the Boston and Maine, especially east bound, were twisted by the heat and warped out of shape so that a vast amount of work had to be done to put them in order.
Rufus H. Jones of Saco was on his way to Portland to see his wife just previous to the awful accident in which he figured. His train was delayed and he got off just in time to be in the accident. It is thought that he was standing or sitting on the steps in front of the store when he was injured.
It was reported late this afternoon that Old Orchard was having the largest crowd today that the resort has ever seen. It is doubtful if as many Biddeford people ever went to get out of the city as they did last night. There was such a tremendous rush that for a time it was impossible to get a car and there were no trains running until the special arrived from Kennebunk after 10 o’clock.
The Biddeford and Saco electrics ran all night to accommodate the people going to and from the beach. People 25 miles away could see the reflection of the fire. Very likely it was seen farther than that but this is the longest distance reported to the Journal.
Hundreds of automobiles brought thousands of sightseer to the fire last night and today from Portland, Biddeford, Saco, Sanford and the nearby summer resorts. Many owners of cars gave their use freely and they were pressed into all sorts of relief service. Mr. E. E. Page of Saco carried Rev. Jones, who was so badly injured in the explosion to the Trull Hospital in his car. Other cars brought firemen to the beach carried doctors to the hospitals and all sorts of messages to various places and one big machine was taking trunks and furniture to places of safety.
People in the cottages who had any spare room were generous, however, in offering to help out their unfortunate neighbors and many were able to get into places where they could sleep on the floor, if sleep was possible to any of them after the experience that they had passed through.
At the Old Orchard house a number of men boarders gallantly offered their rooms for the protection of women who had no place to go. Three young men who had two rooms gave them up and nine young women from the Fiske and Sea Shore houses they occupied them for the night.
After the danger from further spread of the fire was over the railroad station was reoccupied and many of the men found shelter there, sitting and dozing on the settees and on the floor. The town hall was thrown open and a large number of people found temporary quarters there. Portland and Boston papers were selling for all kinds of fancy prices at Old Orchard this morning. Five and 10 cents were the ruling prices as long as the supply lasted. The burned district is estimated as being 75 acres.
One thousand or more slept on the beach all night and it was no unusual sight this morning to see women fixing their hair before a looking glass set up on a trunk, box or other handy article. Many this morning ate what food they could secure from boxes set up in the middle of a bunch of furniture, in picnic style.
A Portland officer arrested Joseph Polakewich of Biddeford, who was removing copper wire from the burned district, this morning. Polakewich had permission for prosecuting the work from Superintendent Sullivan of the York Light and Heat company and was later released from the jail.
All the way from, $7 to $10 was paid by summer boarders to get their trunks and baggage removed to places of safety both last night and this morning. Everybody with a team not in use was on hand and some of the drivers coined the money. Some of the expressmen were more moderate in their prices and they did a land office business, making mostly short hauls.
New lumber has already been ordered for the Old Orchard pier and a flight of stairs will be built and everything will be in readiness for business Sunday.
On account of the danger from electricity to the firemen and spectators, the trolley and feed wires of the Biddeford and Saco Railroad company, in front of the post office, were cut by employees of the company early in the evening and the cars were then run only as far as the Old Orchard House. The electrics carried thousands to the fire, Superintendent Worthing did everything in his power to handle the crowd, but it was impossible to get extra men together to run the cars on such short notice. The cars were kept running until everyone who wanted to come back from the beach was brought home. The last car returned at 3:30 o’clock this morning.
LIST OF LOSSES
Listed here are most of the businesses that were lost – many cottages and residences were also loss to the fire.
Seashore House, Frank G. Staples, proprietor; loss $60,000, insurance $30,000.
Hotel Fiske, Charles H. Fiske, proprietor; loss $100,000; insurance $30,000.
Alberta Hotel, owned by C. H. Guppy, Portland, and managed by E. L. Holt of Old Orchard; loss $40,000, insurance $25,000.
The Emerson (Velvet) owned by L. M. Leighton and C. B. Dalton of Portland cost estimated at $150,000, but purchased by them this year for $31,000; insured $47,000.
The Irving, Mrs. G.S. Googins, proprietress; estimated value $12,000, Insurance $7,000.
Hotel Aldine, owned by Mrs. Burbank, daughter of the late Samuel M. Haines; estimated value $40,000; insurance $22,000.
Lawrence House, Mrs. F. M. Glove of Biddeford, proprietress; estimated value $45,000, insurance $8,000
Palmer House, owned by A. L. Jacques of Biddeford; loss $9,000, insurance $5,000.
The New Marlboro, owned by H. A. Dyke; loss $5,000, insurance $2,500.
The Vendome; loss $6,000, insurance $3,000.
The Vesper, loss $5,000, insurance $2,000.
The Linwood House, loss $5,000, insurance $1,500.
Olympia House, Miss Emma Jordan of Epping, N. H., proprietress, loss $7,000, insurance $3,500.
Attleboro House, owned by Mrs. Mary E. Cronk, Bradford, Mass., loss 4,000.
Lewiston House, S. W. Holt of Portland, proprietor, occupied by J. H. Goodkowsky. Loss $2,000.
Gorham House, S. W. Holt, proprietor, loss $6,000 insurance
Bernier House and cottages, Joseph Bernier proprietor, $30,000; insurance $15,000.
The Emerson Annex, lodging rooms and laundry, loss $1,800; insurance $1,000.
Traynor’s drug store, John J. Traynor, proprietor, $7,000 loss; insurance $2,000.
The Gracie May building: Tinsdale’s studio and C. R. Whittemore’s billiard hall, $3,000
Thomas L. Cleaves’ café, lodging house and bowling alleys, loss $30,000, Insurance $15,000.
Cornelius Allen’s shell store, loss $2,000; insurance, $1,000.
J. W. Porter’s coal sheds and wood storehouse, loss $5,000.
W. A. Mewer’s lumber mill, loss $5,000; insurance $750.
McDonnough’s pharmacy, owned by C. H. Granby of Portland, loss $1,000
Horgan & Abbott’s drug store, loss $3,500.
Sidney Atwood’s lunch room, loss $1,000.
David Abisalih’s fancy goods store, loss $1,200.
Scamman’s news store, fruit store and fancy goods stand, loss $3,000.
Egyptian bazaar, E. F. Alkazin, proprietor, loss $1,200.
Fruit store of E. D. Abisalih, loss $1,000.
Japanese store, J. B. Vanbourn owner, loss $900.
W. E. Leavitt & Co. shell and fancy goods store, loss $1,000.
Baker’s photographic studio, loss $1,000.
The Boston studio, E. E. Sawtelle, proprietor, loss $900.
J. I. Mackey’s antique store and building, loss $20,00; insurance $5,000.
Fruit and oriental store, Homsy & Brother, loss $900.
Alberta bakery, loss $3,000.
Nathan Woolf, Boston, Mass. Souvenir store, $8,000.
Cornelius Allen estate, several cottages, $45,000
Old Orchard Pier approach and head house, loss $10,000.

At several points in the ruins this afternoon, smoke was to be seen rising from the smoldering timbers. There was no chance for a fresh outbreak, however, as everything combustible was thoroughly consumed during the conflagration. The smoke arose from heaps of hot ashes buried beneath rubble and the general debris left by the fire.
Most of those who were left without shelter when they were forced to evacuate the big hotels, boarding houses and cottages had taken their departure form the resort. The great part of the shelterless tourists left on the special trains run by the Boston & Maine yesterday. A few remained over night to attend to the storing of property and belongings saved from the flames. These took their departure today.
Workmen were engaged this forenoon in clearing away the mass of debris and twisted iron pipes at the shore end of the steel pier. The management will as soon as possible have a flight of stairs built, the planking re-laid where it was torn up to prevent the spread of the fire to he casino and resume operations.
The firemen and police spent a great part of the day yesterday in knocking over the chimneys left standing in the ruins. It was feared that they might be blown over and injure persons wandering over or working in the ruins.
The wind came in off the water from the southeast, the black clouds scudded loweringly overhead, a few people tripped around beneath umbrellas or encased in rubber coats. There were no gay crowds promenading back and forth on the walks. Gone were the light dresses, the laughter, and buoyancy that abounded everywhere forty-eight hours ago.
The lonely thing about the whole resort that really looked natural was the grand old ocean whose surf calmly and without interruption fell with rhythm on the white sands. The scene of yesterday today and tomorrow, even such a conflagration as this was could do nothing to mar the majestic beauty of the beach and the water.
There is no doubt that the night was extremely uncomfortable for everybody, and more particularly for women. But the harrowing dispatches appearing in some of the Boston papers about the suffering endured by some of the guests who had to remain in the open air all night were entirely unwarranted by the facts. A good deal of inconvenience in getting food was also experienced, but there was no danger of anybody starving to death and nobody was the worse for having to go without a hot breakfast. Stories told about the fabulous prices charged for a cup of coffee and a sandwich are ludicrous.
As to the looting of property there is no question that in many instance articles of value, such as silverware, expensive tapestries, hangings and laces. That were easily gathered up when the hotels began to burn, were stolen. Pickpockets also operated to some extent. But so far as could be ascertained the yarns about people being knocked down and relieved of their valuables were nothing but fakes based on rumors for which there was no foundation.
A pickpocket who tried to gather in the watch of one of the spectators of the fire met with a sudden reverse that he will remember for many a day. Just as he reached over the man’s shoulder to take the timepiece, the man’s companion standing besides hem raised his hand and struck the thief a terrible blow in the face with an iron window weight that he held in his hand. Blood spurted from the pickpocket’s nose and he made himself scarce with great alacrity.
In some of the morning papers there were stories of fears of a water famine at Old Orchard, but there is no foundation for any anxiety in this particular. Some of the pipes at the end of the pier were broken and some water ran to waste but the mains are not broken and there is no lack of water whatever in that part of the town unscathed by the flames. Some criticism of the fire department had been heard but as the organization is volunteer one that is called out once a year, it would seem that fault finding with the way the firemen tried to handle the blaze at its inception is not justified.
ECHOES FROM THE BIG BLAZE
A variety of notes of much interest.
Old Orchard never saw such a day for messages by wire and telephone as Friday. One of the telegraph operators at the railroad station said at noon that they had already accepted enough messages to take two people until eleven o'clock that night to get them away. This was the business only one way, no reference are made to the messages received.
In most instances, the burned out guests found people only too glad to do all they could for the relief of the homeless. Many gave up their own beds and slept on couches to accommodate the strangers whom they had made their guests.
The reflection of the fire was so bright at Newburyport, Mass., that a party of gentlemen started from that city in an automobile for Portsmouth, N. H. thinking that the later city was burning. When they reached Portsmouth they were told that the fire was in Old Orchard, but they said it did not look any further that York Beach. They came through to Old Orchard.
The schooner Lucinda Sutton with a cargo of coal from Norfolk, arrived at Portland Friday and the crew reported that they observed the blaze of the fire at Old Orchard, although the vessel was fifty miles offshore. The view from the vessel was most spectacular and as one of the sailors remarked at the time it looked as if the whole world was on fire.
At a special meeting of the Portland board of mayor and alderman Friday morning, an order was passed, directing the city clerk to express the sympathy of the people of Portland to the selectmen of Old Orchard, and to offer any assistance to that town in its stricken condition, which is in the power of the city.
OLD ORCHARD'S FUTURE.
At the moment when the blow is most severely felt there may be a disposition to believe that the fire, which wiped out so much property at Old Orchard, was a calamity from which that resort can never recover, but such is pessimistic view of the situation has no foundation in cool common sense. That the blow was a hard one all will admit, but so long as the Atlantic Ocean continues to send its waves in upon one of the most attractive beaches in the world, Old Orchard will no be a "has-been." At the present moment, over and above the shock of the calamity, there is a general sense of relief and thankfulness that there was no greater loss of life. That there was any is of course to be regretted, but one can easily imagine what the loss in this direction might have been had the fire started after midnight instead of early in the evening. Already plans are being made for rebuilding in the fire-swept district and the work once begun will no be allowed to lag. The high price of lumber and labor may act as a discouraging element in the problem of rebuilding, but this is a matter that will not be permitted to block Yankee industry and enterprise.
When the new Old Orchard rises from it bed of ashes it will be better, with regard to the considerations of architecture and permanency, than ever before, and it is not impossible that a the time will come when this great calamity will be regarded as a blessing in disguise.