TELEPHONE F OREST fires of awe-inspiring pro- portions, feeding on drought- Topics stricken timberlands and whipped by 50-mile an hour winds, swept un- controlled through many sections of New England during the latter part of October. While the loss of lives was com- paratively small, the destruction of towns, homes and valuable forests SPECIAL EDITION was on a much larger scale than in any previous disaster. Where the fires reached their most voracious intensity nothing was left but scorched earth and scarred tim- ber, except for fireplaces and chim- neys, which ironically man had fashioned for fire, The Throughout the raging holocaust men and women battled gallantly to Maine brook the rampaging fires. Their struggle against insurmountable odds was one of courage and heroism. It was a heart-rending exemplification Fire of the indomitable spirit of man fighting to save what it had taken a lifetime to build. Story In every fire-swept area telephone men and women were performing notably on the communications front. As power and light facilities were disrupted, the telephone became the principal medium for communi- cation between fire-fighting, relief, police and military organizations. The story of their achievements would require volumes to tell. In this special edition of Telephone Topics we attempt to capture their spirit of service in highlight fashion only. While it is a story of Maine. it is meant as a tribute to every tele- phone man and woman in New Eng- land whose response to their public trust was unselfishly exemplified. Complete devastation and destruc- tion on a wholesale scale were per- haps most graphically portrayed on Mount Desert Island. Here on what was oftentimes referred to as the Gold Coast or the Newport of Maine, the fabulous Bar Harbor summer resort saw destruction running up into millions of dollars. As far as the eye could reach on either side of the main arteries leading into the Bar Harbor business district, virtu- ally everything was reduced to rubble. Wherever one travelled, sympathy was expressed for the small home owner, the permanent resident of Bar Harbor. People seemed to feel that the loss to the owners of fabu- lous mansions was a financial one and one that they could probably bear, but to the "little fellow," every- thing he had saved, everything he had, everything he had created was gone in the fire. In talking to the "little fellows," however, they ap- peared to be more disconsolate over the destruction of the mansions The loaded fire into vehicles, were driven to the municipal pier, only point of refuge in Bar Harbor, so that they would not be destroyed. line indicated by the white line was only 400 yards from the Central Office. Commercial, Traffic and Plant records, than over their own personal loss. For it to send boats to evacuate the people from and light gone, the Central Office operated was in these mansions, on their grounds the town. Nearly 35 boats of all kinds, on emergency power and was the sole and in the commerce that resulted from including two destroyers and the Coast source of communication available to the their being there that the so-called little Guard Cutter Bibb, were sent. When the people of Bar Harbor. The walls of flame, fellow depended for his livelihood. town was completely surrounded by fire less than a quarter of a mile away, were There were many pessimistic enough to except on the ocean side, more than 2,000 reflected in the windows of the Central believe the fire had put an end to an era, people gathered on the municipal pier for Office and played fantastic tricks on the had written finale to one of the most color- evacuation. Only a small portion of them face of the switchboard. The Central ful stories in the history of fabulous living. was taken off, however, for the 50-mile Office was filled with smoke and the heat In the late afternoon of October 23 it gale whipped Frenchman's Bay into such from the approaching fire was so intense became apparent that the fires sweeping a fury that it was impossible to bring that the fire department was summoned to through the forests surrounding Bar Har- boats to the pier. play streams of water on the outside of bor were beyond control. A fifty-mile When the fire reached two principal the building so that the operators could gale whipped the furious fires into a rag- points only 400 yards from the Central continue to handle the calls of relief agen- ing inferno that brooked every effort of Office, the wind veered sharply and un- cies, fire and police departments and help the emergency forces. Gradually every expectedly, and not only was the town to dispatch all fire-fighting units from one road leading out of the business district saved, but also the lives of the men, women spot to another as they made a last-ditch was enveloped in a blaze of flame. There and children who were trapped between stand before the fire swept them into the fire and the sea. Frenchman's Bay. was no way out. Telephone Manager John Conti, Jr., rec- In the Bar Harbor Central Office every Many of those girls worked 60 or 70 ognizing the severity of the situation ap- conceivable effort was being made to hours, snatching cat naps on cots and eat- pealed to the Navy and the Coast Guard maintain communications. With all power ing cold sandwiches. For some of them had no homes to go to and only food pro- vided by the relief agencies was available on the encircled island. Some who worked through the night of fire and chaos lost their homes and many did not know where their parents or their children were, but despite the uncertainty of the whereabouts of their immediate families and despite the certain knowledge BROWNFIELD HONOR ROLL of the loss of their homes and personal property, they continued to work on at the switchboard. At Seal Harbor, on the other side of the island, all women and children were evac- uated-all the men were fighting the fires. All the women, that is, except two opera- tors, Ruth Donnell and Ada Bowden, at the Seal Harbor Central Office. With all roads blocked by the fire, the women and children of Seal Harbor were evacuated on the Mission Boat "The Sunbeam." The two Seal Harbor operators continued on the job and served at their switchboard The beautiful town green that was once the meeting place of the people of Brownfield throughout the week, catching a bit of is no more. Surviving the fire that destroyed virtually everything in the town was the sleep only when it was impossible to go memorial to Brownfield's soldier dead of World War II. Its proud gold eagle and on any longer without it. They were de- white background were as unmarked as the day the memorial was dedicated. pendent on passing trucks for food, for there was no food available on the island except from relief agencies. Early on Tuesday they lost their lights and their power, too, and had to use a hand generator for ringing. A kerosene lamp, placed on the switchboard between them, provided the only light for their operation for the next three nights. Plant A typical telephone candid workers jacked up the switchboard in the camera shot seen on many of the roads in Maine. This hope that they could remove it in the trio was plotting a new pole event the fire reached the community. A line to replace one destroyed boat was kept on hand for the evacuation by fire on one of the main of the two operators. arteries into Bar Harbor. Throughout the week the changing wind kept building the tension as the fire moved from one section of the harbor to the other, but never did quite reach the settle- ment. On a small table behind the girls was a lonely and bedraggled bouquet of flowers, snatched from a roadside garden by the Fire Chief of Seal Harbor, who The world famous Jackson Memorial Cancer Research Laboratory was directly in the took time off during the height of the fire path of the Bar Harbor fire. Nothing was saved but 30,000 white mice. Cancer fighting to present them to the operators research suffered a most serious set-back when the great laboratory was destroyed. with the remark, "We would be lost with. out you. Please keep going." A few miles away at Northeast Harbor a similar situation existed. Five opera- tors, under the direction of Chief Operator Beatrice Foster, remained at their switch- board positions throughout the week. They, too, were without lights on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but did not lose their ringing power. They used candles, lanterns, flashlights and kerosene lamps to illuminate the face of the board. Their suitcases were packed and standing in the center of the Central Office floor, while at the foot of the outside staircase a fishing boat stood ready to evacuate them if the fire struck Northeast Harbor. These operators, Viola Murphy, Ruth Wilcox, Glennis Reed, Helen Gillette and Philena Davis, supervised the entire evac- O e en 01 e IOWI Manager, they sounded the evacuation alarm and then called every telephone to explain the necessity of the evacuation. When the evacuation was completed they were the only women left at Northeast Harbor. Wire Chief Sheldon Littlefield and his crew had the narrowest kind of escape from death. Working along a pole line in Bar Harbor, the fire, which moved with the speed of a race horse, shot across the road in front and back and trapped them. Their five motor vehicles were driven across the face of the fire to safety. They felt lucky. When the fire threatened West Newfield, 40 miles above Portland, the Plant people jacked up the switchboard in the West Newfield Office, put it on a truck and drove it away. The fire approached to within seventy. five yards of the Central Office when the wind, which designed a crazy-quilt pattern in its week-long orgy of destruction, sud- denly veered and left the center of the town untouched. The switchboard was quickly Except for a 50-minute period Bar Harbor was never out of telephone contact put back in service and continued on, al- with the mainland, one circuit being kept open to Bangor. The day following though the town was threatened several the fire 6 circuits were working. Plant damage was light despite ferocity of the fire. times again. Youthful Ruth Emery, Operator at Bid- deford, had the unusual experience of hav- SODAS ing two houses burned out from under her. DICKS At 6:30 a.m. on October 27 her mother LUNCHEONETTE left their home in Guinea Road, to take up her post with a relief agency. A half hour later Miss Emery and her father were The Army and State Militia did yeo- Wire Chief Sheldon Littlefield (left) man work patrolling streets and high- and part of his Bar Harbor crew that ways and joining the fire-fighting crews. helped maintain communications had a narrow escape when trapped by fire. For three consecu- tive nights opera- tors at Northeast Harbor used can- dles, lanterns, ker- osene lamps, and searchlights to il- luminate the face of their switch- boards. Operators were the only wo- men allowed to re- main when the town was evacuated. A partially de- stroyed telephone pole continues to hold up this jum- bled mass of cross= arms at Alfred, standing in the road watching the com- plete destruction of their home. The fire swept through the woods from the rear and enveloped the house with such speed that the only article salvaged was the young operator's fur coat. With all the rest of their worldly belongings destroyed the father and daughter took up temporary residence with a relative at Goose Rocks six miles away. At 3 o'clock that after- noon the same fire rushing unimpeded to- ward the sea enveloped and destroyed their second home. Miss Emery and her mother were alone in the house at the time and once again the speed of the fire drove them outdoors without even the fur coat that Miss Emery had saved in the first fire. Surrounded on all sides by roaring flames the mother and daughter drove across an open field to the beach where, unable to find a way out, they waded out into the ice-cold ocean up to their shoulders and were forced to stand there until the fire passed. Another telephone employee who lost all of his worldly goods in the fire was World War II veteran Herbert E. Duffell, Operator Ruth Emery views discon- a Combination man at Biddeford, with 18 solately the remains of her home months' service with the Company. Duf. at Biddeford. Her family lost everything in the devastating fire. fell's home in Alfred Road on the outskirts of Biddeford was burned to the ground on Thursday night in the fire that threatened for a time the city itself. Duffell fought the fire furiously in an effort to save his home, but was finally driven into the street as the flames con- With a friend Operator Ruth sumed the frame dwelling. A large area Emery leaves the second home from which she was forced to flee in a period of a few hours. With her mother she was forced into the ocean to avoid the fire. This crew succeeded in replac- ing the burnt-out aerial toll cable between Bar Harbor and Bangor the day after the fire. Manager John Conti of Bar Harbor ties the line that served residence of Walter Damrosch, famed American conductor. Emergency calls in Bid- deford area were handled on these two positions of switchboard cut in service the day before the fire. At these two sections of switchboard record-breaking calls were handled The Bar Harbor Central Office was the community's nerve during the emergency at Biddeford. Every available operator was pressed center as operators worked tirelessly through a night fraught into service to handle the flood of calls from fire-fighting agencies. with danger and suspense. The office was filled with smoke. of flat open space between his home and the woods encouraged him to dig a trench around the rear of his property. While doing so with a plough attached to a trac. tor, Duffell was practically burned off the seat of the vehicle as the flames swept out of the woods and enveloped the tractor. He then, with the assistance of several neigh. bors, used hand pumps to wet down the ground in front of his barn, but the fire swept ruthlessly through the field and drove Duffell and his assistants back to the house where their final efforts to wet the ground with water they had stored in milk cans were unavailing. They were finally driven back to the road and stood there futilely as the last vestige of real estate disappeared under the relentless fury of the fire. Biddeford, which had been on the anx- ious side throughout the week, was close to evacuation on Thursday night when the fire which had roared through Lyman and At work in the control center for fire-fighters in the Bangor area are, seated: E. W. Bellefontaine, District Construction Planner; R. L. Gardenier, District Plant Supt.: Waterboro suddenly swerved toward the H. E. Noddin, District Plant city. The fire came within 200 yards of Engineer. Standing: E. R. Webber Hospital and the patients were McLellan, Wire Chief; S. C. just about to be evacuated when the fire Bigda, District Manager; P. was checked. In the Biddeford Central Sawyer, PBX Foreman; F. P. Desmond, Manager; R. E. Office there was the same terrific tempo Lawson, District Foreman. that characterized all of the Central Offices in the fire area. Operators worked con- Working against time a new tinuously without returning to their homes toll aerial cable was put in as all relief agencies virtually poured their service on the Boston-Port- land toll line when the fire calls through the Central Office as they destroyed a section of plant. Wire and twisted crossarms Duffell's home was burned to the ground. with a telephone truck as a The hand-pump in the foreground, his second background make up this line of defense, failed to stop the onrushing scene near Brownfield. fire as he fought futilely to save his property. Combination man H. E. Duffell had to abandon his tractor when the fire swept out of the woods in the rear of his home. Every position was filled throughout the emergency in the Ban- Doris and Clifford Hannaford Wire Chief Sheldon Littlefield gor Central Office where newspaper men and radio commen- and Helen McKechnie operated inspects emergency units that tators established their headquarters during the $30,000,000 fire. the West Newfield board until supplied the only power and townspeople were evacuated. light in the Bar Harbor Office. attempted to evacuate families in the vicin- ity of the approaching fire. One operator answered a call from a woman on an out- lying road who had been isolated in a farm house with her two children and had no means of leaving. They were rescued by Red Cross workers who were sent to the scene by the operator. As in other affected areas the Central Office was the principal means of communication for the police and fire-fighting agencies. Two new sec- tions of switchboard recently cut into service were used to handle all fire, police and fire-fighting calls as a means of reliev- ing some of the congestion from the regu- lar positions. Here again operators worked throughout the chaotic Thursday night not knowing of the whereabouts or the safety of their homes. Several of the op- erators who lived in the outlying districts lost all of their belongings when their homes were destroyed. While many towns and villages were destroyed there was none more completely obliterated than the township of Brown- field. When the flames swept down from When the raging fire disrupted power facilities special telephone arrangements were the surrounding hills and through Brown- made for newspaper men and radio commentators. It was also made possible for photographers to send wire photos to metropolitan newspapers. Nationwide radio field they left behind nothing but one broadcasts were made from Ellsworth. News coverage of the fire was extensive. house and a wooden railroad station that was only big enough to have the name of the town written on it. From the vantage point of the bridge leading into the town and looking down the main street as far as On the job as soon as fire passed Salisbury the eye could see there was nothing left Cove this telephone crew was snapped as they erected a new pole next to the old. The only sign of life in Brownfield the day after the fire was this telephone crew caught by the cameraman as they stopped for lunch. In their opinion the destruction of Brownfield was the most complete in the Maine fire. These positions of supple- mentary toll tables at Ban- gor helped relieve the load on the main switchboards. but black chimneys and charred trees. The town was gone-it was a ghost town. In the center of the town where once an at- tractive little green stood was nothing but scorched earth. In the rear white slabs of marble that marked the graves of the town dead were black. Every bit of vegetation was gone. Against this blackened back- ground of what was once the gathering place of the townspeople was a wooden billboard-a small one, perhaps 6' X 4'. It was black and gold and white and al- though everything around it was burned, it retained the same black and white and gold as when it was originally painted- it hadn't been touched by the fire. It was the monument to the World War II dead of Brownfield. In every city and town and village in the fire-affected areas key people were con- tacted by representatives of the Commer- Operators Ruth Donnell and Ada Bowden at Seal Harbor were the only women allowed cial Department. The Commercial people to remain when the fire threatened their village. With only a kerosene lamp for illumina- explained the telephone situation and the tion these girls stayed at their posts providing the sole communications for those engaged plans that had been made for emergency in fighting the fires. Their only route to safety was a boat tied up near the office. services. In some instances, such as Ells- worth to which the majority of Bar Harbor people were evacuated, the Commercial De- partment established an entire communica- Brick chimneys and fireplaces that man had fashioned for fire are grim sentinels guarding tions set-up for the community and after the ruins of the Malvern Hotel. Scenes such as this stretched for miles across the face assigning key telephones for all agencies of the Gold Coast of Bar Harbor on Mt. Desert Island that Samuel de Champlain once called "The Island of Deserted Mountains." Today one could not dispute his appellation. drew up a directory of telephones for the information of all key people. All local and toll traffic records in Maine were smashed during the fire. AB and toll tickets recorded during a normal dav and during the fire compared as follows: Bidde- ford 750-1365; Cornish 325-694; Kenne- bunk 375-799; Kennebunkport, 275-740: Portland 7200-12,120; Sanford 850-1564: Wells 400-898; Bangor 4800-6912; Bar Harbor 4800-6912; Ellsworth 700-2104. Damage to telephone plant was com. paratively light. A total of 472 working stations and 293 left on premises as well as three PBX's were destroyed. Telephone poles destroyed or to be removed totaled 1183 and 65 circuit miles of open wire had to be replaced. One-half mile of local exchange cable, 100 pairs or less in size, was burned out. While fire swept across seven miles of the Boston-Portland toll cable, only 1550 feet of toll aerial cable had to be replaced. Of the 51/2 miles of toll cable serving Bar Harbor that was swept by fire only 750 feet had to be replaced. Rain came Wednesday, October 29-it was too late.