Only the quick action of Capt. Samuel B. Norton, the skill and equipment of the Edgartown Fire Department, the aid of the sprinkler system just installed and not ready to function automatically, and one or two elements of chance such as a lack of wind and the time at which smoke and flames appeared over and through the building, prevented the destruction of the Harbor View Hotel in what was so nearly a disastrous conflagration late Wednesday afternoon.
COTTAGE CITY, Sept. 26, 1892.
At 11.45 on Saturday night, watchman Lewis rung in the alarm from box 41, at the Arcade, and people jumped from their beds and rushes to the windows and saw, with dismay, the eastern sky brilliantly illuminated, directly over the Sea View House. Cries of “Fire!” “Fire!” “The Sea View House!” “The Sea View House!!” rent the stillness of the night, the light in the heavens contrasting vividly with the darkness, the sky being overcast with heavy clouds, from which at times the rain descended, as if weeping in sorrow over the awful catastrophe.