FIRE AT NOWATA; LOSS IS $50,000

Flames Devour Tharaves Hotel and Threaten Business District.

INCENDIARY ORIGIN?

Third Fire in Three Weeks -- Armed Men Ready to Fight.

Nowata, Okla., Aug. 22 - 2 A. M. - At midnight the fire was under control, having been confined to the Tharaves hotel. Guards are on duty throughout the business district to prevent further operations of incendiaries.

Nowata, Okla., Aug. 21. - Unless the efforts of a band of heroic firemen are overcome by ill offsets of a stiff westerly breeze the business section of Nowata will be saved from a disastrous conflagration. The worst was apparently over at 10 o'clock when flames from the Tharaves hotel ruins were thwarted in their attack upon an airdome adjoining on the east and the $5,000 plant of the Supply Hardware and Lumber company, west adjoining, for the time being was protected. The hotel is a mass of ruins and the loss is estimated at $50,000.

The fire was of incendiary origin. Two men suspected of the crime were seen running from the building soon after the flames were discovered and officers chased them into the darkness of the rural district. They had poured coal oil and gasoline nearly all over the rear of the building and left cans of it on the first floor. The fire started on the second floor, and a general alarm was given when the oil cans exploded after fire brands began dropping. Oil evidently had been placed in other parts of the building, for the structure was a mas of flames before efforts could be made to check the fire.

Three other buildings on Main street were fired almost simultaneously with the hotel at 9:20, but those were smothered before such damage resulted.

Owing to the fact that this is the third successive Saturday night that buildings in Nowata have been fired and the further fact that Nowata county has recently been in the throes of a heated county seat campaign, as a result of which Nowata won over Delaware, excitement is at a high pitch. Eenimies [sic] of the town who fought it in the campaign are openly chared with arson. Hundreds of angry people thronged the streets while the fire raged and many were armed for a battle.

The Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK 22 Aug 1909
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!