WHOLESALE EVACUATION-Hundreds of refugees evacuated from Bar Harbor during the night Thursday and early Friday morning were transported to city hall, Ellsworth, where shelter was found by a quickly organized crew of Red Cross workers. (Staff photo by Dunbar.) Tight-Lipped Fire Evacuees Worried About Homes And Kin By OWEN OSBORNE NEWS Sports Writer BAR HARBOR, Oct. 24-A tight-lipped woman sat in silence among 200 evacuees in the Ellsworth City Hall at two o'clock Friday morning. She had just been evacuated from Bar Harbor's roaring inferno via Winter Harbor a few hours before and was somewhat dazed by what had taken place in one day. Just 24 hours before she had been with her husband and son in a nice comfortable home. Now she didn't know whether or not she had a home or a family. MAD SCRAMBLE enveloped by the flames and were During the mad scramble to doomed. leave the burning town she had that threatened their homes. All of these helped shatter nerves lost a suitcase with all personal be- Steaming coffee, sandwiches and of steel. longings but her greatest worry, like cigarettes were furnished by the Moving along the shore drive, 2,000 other evacuees, was not of her Red Cross workers and friends. fires were burning on both sides. In house and its furnishings, but of Hurried conversations on a tele- places, only grass was burning her family. phone soon developed into orders beside the road: a telephone pole The men, too, left behind to fight for crews to be dispatched to other hung by wires, and was still burn- the flames and protect their homes, points. ing. Then the ruins of what once were worried about the wives, chil- was a massive summer home would The wind had played havoc with dren and parents, one of the great- loom up under the light of its own Bar Harbor. Now it had shifted est threats to the morale of a flame, a grim reminder of Bar and towns that had helped Bar people suddenly stricken by dis- Harbor in its prime as one of the Harbor needed help and the men aster. nation's greatest summer colonies. weren't going to let them down. It was written on the blank faces Turning down Cottage street, it And the people of Ellsworth, who of those quartered in Ellsworth, at suddenly became pitch dark. The needed help over a dozen years ago the Bar Harbor airport, in churches lights of a car picked up a National when that city burned, now were and a roller skating rink; on the Guard sentry as he braved the glad to help those who had given faces of the men huddled on the bitter cold of midnight to guard them aid then. floor of the Bar Harbor fire station, against looters, who were rumored American people are like that. catching a short nap while they on the loose. awaited daybreak when they would GRAVEYARD OF CHIMNEYS go back to battle the blaze. The woman in the Ellsworth As the cold, gray dawn appeared City Hall told how she was ordered a graveyard of chimneys loomed to the Bar Harbor athletic field up, appearing like a cemetery of a where a canteen was set up. Sud- great town. Turning up Eagle Lake denly, like an orange monster, the road, homes, hotels and garages flames descended onto the town and were nothing but smouldering ashes and now and then an owner could orders were given to move to the wharf where boats would take them be seen looking over the ruins. A off the island. She started walking, partially burned garden hose but was given a ride by an Army stretched out from one house, proof car. When she finally arrived at that the owner had desperately Winter Harbor, her suitcase was attempted to protect it with what little means he had. missing leaving only the clothes she was wearing at the time. The Kebo Valley Golf club, SIGHS WERE AUDIBLE known throughout the country as one of the best, was gone; so was But names had been taken of the home of Shirley Liscomb, pro every evacuee and men fighting of the club. the fire could learn the where- Back in the fire station, men be- abouts of their families, and the gan to stir. Red-eyed, fatigued men sighs were audible as they glanced who were thankful for a chance to over the list and found the names get an hour's nap, but were anxious they were seeking. to go back to battling the flames Moving on to Bar Harbor itself, rumors were as thick as the smoke that hovered overhead. A rumor