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Show COPPERFIELD IS VISITED HI' DISASTROUS Fl u Splendid School Building And Five Residences And Apartment Houses Destroyed By Midnight Conflagration Tenants Were ' Aroused From Their Slumbers By Angry Flames Loss . Nearly $50,000 Many Are Left Destitute. . ; The greatest fire In the history bf " Copperfield ' and the most disastrous In the entire camp since 1895 broke out in an apartment house shortly after af-ter midnight Wednesday morning, destroying de-stroying two large apartment houses. v three residences, the splendid school building and partially destroyed two other reuidences, entailing a loss ap proximately $50,000. The fire originated in the rear of " ' one of the Caulfiold apartment houses presumably by a spark from a pass- ing locomotive, and had made great headway before It was discovered. -There were eight families living In the apartment houses and many of the occupants had barely time to escape es-cape Into the street, leaving their - belongings to be consumed by the! flames. "Between 50 and 100 were mada homeless ar.d many ' of those were left without clothes. , The flames spread rapidly over the dry wooden structure and but for ' -the heroic work of the firemen may have swept the entire town. The Cop- perfleld firemen commenced their work at once and a call was sent to Lower Bingham and the two fire departments de-partments from here responded at once. It wgb a desperate fight combatting com-batting the flames reaching into the heavens to save adjoining buildings. 'Before the fury of the conflagration was checked the flames leaped acrosa the street and caught the residences adjoining the school building and then tho school building Itself caught fire Owing to the location of the school building the water pressure was not sufficient to throw an effective stream on the roof and could not be savwl. But the water was used with telling effect on the bulllings on either side of the apartment houses. Such floods were turned on these buildings that In spite of the intense heat no other structures on that side of the-street were totally destroyed and this probably prob-ably saved tha town from being swept off the map. The 'Bingham firemen- wrro not able to get In their best work when they arrived owing to the fact that the Copperfleld and iBIngham connections connec-tions are not uniform, it is understood under-stood that they have reducers to use In case of such emergency, but they could not be located at the time. ' The losses consisted of the school building which cost about $20,000, but which could not be replaced for less than $25,000 or $30,000; the Caul-field Caul-field apartments, $12,000; two resl- dences belonging to J. Richards, one residence belonging to George Simmons, Sim-mons, and two residences belonging to 'Mr. Caulfleld partly dostrovwl. No estimate has ben placed on the furniture fur-niture and other .belongings of the tenants, but it would reach well into the thousands. - " A committee wes appointed Wednesday Wed-nesday to solicit contributions for " those made destitute, by the fire and the people In the camp are responding respond-ing freely to their cause. The appearance of .the fire stricken strick-en district next morning was indeed ghastly. The bleak wall of the school building were still standing, the debris of the apartment houses wen still standing, many firemen who had fought the flames and res- ' cued children during the nirht were still on the scene viewing the havoc The school building w.is Insured under a blanket policy which Is understood un-derstood to be about the value of the structure at the me It was erected, erect-ed, the Caulfleld property was insur- ' ed for $6,000. The other property was without Insurance, The schorl building will be rebuilt Immed'ntely according to Information received from F. (W. Quinn. member of the district board of education, anrl it will be modern in every respect with stesra heat and other conveniences. conveni-ences. Some were inclined to be-lleve be-lleve that the walls of the old building build-ing were uninjured and might be built to. but It is understood that th board of education will not tike nnv chances and will erect a new buildiriK outright. Every possible offort will be made to see that the school chll-dren chll-dren of Copperfleld will be cared for when the next session of school cou- 1 verses. |