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A THRILLING ESCAPE
H.W. Macoomb’s House Has Narrow Escape From Second Destruction by Fire.
Damage May be $1500
[Welland Tribune, 6 December 1907]
Shortly before eight o’clock on Tuesday evening, Mrs. Macoomb, who was in the drawing room of their home on Division street, noticed an odor of something burning. Mr. Macoomb ran upstairs and discovered smoke issuing from the hot air register in the hallway. He picked up their young son Hudson, who was sleeping in the bedroom on the left and sent word across the street to Mr. Chas. Rice to send in an alarm.
The firemen and a large number of willing helpers were on hand immediately, but to get at the fire was quite a different problem. It was seen that there was fire underneath the floor all the way from the main furnace hot air flue in the hallway over to the register at the other side of the bedroom where Hudson had been. To break in this strip of hardwood flooring was hard work, but it was eventually accomplished and sufficient water was poured in with the hose to flood out the fire.
The damage by the fire alone was not so great as that caused by water and the breaking of the floors to get at the fire.
Fortunately everything downstairs was safely got out of the way before the water started to run through the ceilings.
The total extent of the damage would probably be $1600 to $1500 and was fully covered by insurance.
The damage extended to the upstairs flooring in the bedroom and hall, the ceilings of the hall, the dining room and sitting room and some articles in the bedroom which were scorched.
One of the incidents of the occurrence was that the maid, who was handed the jewel case to look after, took it outside and laid it on the ground. Later on it was discovered broken to pieces, and the contents were scattered about the ground, but on carefully searching, everything was recovered.
The firemen were hardly able to work in the dense smoke for a time, and some of the men were obliged to get out into the fresh air.
The water caused the electric current to become diffused throughout the building, so that shocks could be felt from the walls, and Messrs. Page and Houston had a difficult task to get up into the smoky attic and throw off the switch.
It is fortunate indeed that the fire did not break out in the night, or at a time when it would not have been so readily detected.
The furnace was run with gas last winter, but this fall Mr. Macoomb has been using coal, and there is no doubt the fire was caused by a defective hot air conductor.
Mr. and Mrs. Macoomb have taken up their residence in the Rectory for the winter.
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