Georgiaville Barn Fire – 1897
Shortly after midnight on the morning of October 28, 1897, a barn belonging to Patrick Burke was discovered to be on fire. Two of Burke’s employees, Charles Bolan and Barney Walch, were sleeping in the lobby of the barn when they were awakened by the distressed cries emanating from the trotting horses, kicking at their stalls. The barn was quickly filling with smoke as the two men grabbed their clothing and ran outside to dress. While Bolan rushed to sound an alarm, Walch ran back into the barn to rescue the animals. Flames were spreading fast and the smoke was getting thicker by the second. He grabbed the first horse he came to and led it from the building, but when he tried to rescue a second, the heat and flames drove him back outside.
Meanwhile villagers were flocking to the scene and formed bucket brigades. (Georgiaville didn’t have any fire-fighting apparatus at this time.) It was obvious that the barn was now beyond saving, and numerous glowing embers from the inferno carried by a slight breeze set the roofs of the nearby Georgiaville Hotel, post office, a meat market, and several private homes on fire. There existed the possibility that the entire area could be destroyed in a conflagration. Villagers ran from one fire to another dousing the rooftops of several buildings, sometimes visiting the same building more than once. The Hotel’s piazza, for example, caught fire three times, and it was only with great difficulty that the hotel was saved.
When it was over, the 40 by 40 foot barn and several outbuildings lay in ashes. Seven valuable trotting horses, a dozen pigs, four buggies, two road carts, two sleighs, thirty tons of hay, and hundreds of dollars of equipment had been lost, non of which was insured.
It was determined that the fire had started in the opposite end of the barn from where the men had been sleeping, and no lanterns had been left burning. It was therefore suspected that it had been deliberately set. Before long, a suspect was in custody, but the outcome of any trial is unknown.
Source:
Evening Bulletin, “Work Of A Firebug”, October 28, 1897, pg. 1
