HOOSICK FALLS ALMOST WIPED OUT BY FLAMES.

BUSINESS SECTION SUFFERS LOSS OF AS NEARLY $200,000 -- APPEAL TO TROY FOR HELP.

Hoosick Falls, March, 20. -- Fire, which started in the Easton Thorpe block, presumably from a heater, and spread to four business blocks, burned one residence and now threatens the entire business section of the town.
Calls for help have been sent to fire departments in Troy, North Adams, Bennington and Cambridge. No loss of life is reported.
Within an hour the loss amounted to between $100,000 and $200,000. It early became evident that the local fire department would be unable to cope with the situation.
Word that two special trains bearing fire equipment had started from Troy came soon after the first appeal for help was sent out.
Several families lilving in the upper stories of the Easton Thorpe block had narrow escapes from injury. As the fire spread they fled from the building saving only a few personal belongings.
The post office, located in the Easton Thorpe block, burned early. The Peter Sward and Eagle confectionery stores and the offices of David Putnam followed.
Flying sparks from the Easton Thorpe block caught the Dougherty hotel and it, too, seemed doomed. All of the guests, it was thought, had escaped.
Hoosick Falls is thirty-seven miles northeast of Troy on the Boston & Maine railroad.

Troy, March 20. -- A call came from the village of Hoosick Falls to-night to the local fire department, requesting that apparatus from this city be sent to that village to help cope with a conflagration raging in the business section of the village.
A telephone message to a local newspaper is to the effect that the fire is spreading rapidly and that already many thousands of dollars worth of valuable property has been destroyed.

The Syracuse Herald New York 1915-03-21
__________________

Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!