The following is condensed from an account published immediately after the fire in the Cumberland Daily News:
It is pretty well settled that the fire originated from sparks that flew from Keim & Co’s foundry into the stable of Francis Weimer, close by, in which there were hay and straw. A bundle of straw first took fire. The owner of the stable, on discovering the fire in the mow, ran up and attempted to throw out the bundle, but as the band had been burned in two, he was unsuccessful, and the fire was scattered over the mow, and in a moment the contents of the stable were ablaze. When the fire first broke out, the wind was blowing a perfect gale, which was intensified by the fire. In less than five minutes from the time that the alarm of fire was first given, a dozen buildings were burning. With terrible effect the flames now leaped from building to building, and seized upon everything of a combustible nature. House after house went down with frightful rapidity, and the inmates were compelled to flee for their lives. Whole blocks were swallowed up in an instant in a terrible whirlpool of flames. All attempts to arrest the progress of the devastating fire proved powerless. Consternation and terror reigned supreme. The hearts of the stoutest men grew faint, and women and children were running for their lives, and screaming in the agony of despair. Men would rush to assist their neighbors in trying to save property, and on looking back would find their own dwellings in flames.
Homes with all their attractiveness, their valued contents, the fine shrubbery around, the product of years of toil and attention, were consumed like stubble before the fire. Nothing could be saved. The air above and the earth beneath were filled with the devouring element. Elegant furniture and household goods of every description were carried out in the streets, only to be licked up by the flames. Instances were frequent where goods took fire in the arms of persons attempting to save them, before they could be carried across the street. Persons who were worth their thousands in the morning, who had elegant homes for themselves and their families, were houseless and penniless by night, with not even a coat to shelter their backs.
The loss is variously estimated at from eight hundred thousand to a million dollars. It certainly cannot be much less. The wealth of the town is almost entirely destroyed. All the stores of every description, except one, all the hotels but one, two banking houses, all the lawyers’ offices, the two printing-offices, two churches— the Presbyterian and Lutheran— are in ruins. Over one hundred and fifty buildings, fifty-two of which were dwellings and stores, and which covered an area of about thirty acres, are now a mass of ruins. It must be remembered, also, that comparatively nothing was saved from these buildings. This must be accounted for from the fact, testified to by all who witnessed the conflagration that in less than thirty minutes from the time the fire broke out, every building that was destroyed was on fire, and beyond redemption. The amount of insurance is about one hundred thousand dollars. Standing upon the west side of the diamond looking eastwardly, nothing was left but broken, blackened toppling walls, and charred trees and shrubbery.
The names of a majority of the sufferers and the principal buildings burned were mentioned in the same article as follows:
The dwellings of Huntsecker and Baer, the grocery store of W.W. Davis & Bro.; cabinetshop of William B. Coffroth, with his fine block on Main street, including Flick’s Washington House, and the Odd-Fellows’ Hall; D.S. Knee’s hotel, Noah Casebeer’s tinware establishment, store and dwelling of A.J. Casebeer & Co., Sayers & Conover’s hotel, the Ross House, and the finest establishment in the place, that of Knable & Patton, J.H. Miller’s store; the postoffice, kept by Mrs. Ogle; the banking house and dwelling of M.A. Sanner & Co.; the Glade House, a large hotel; the dwellings of Henry F. Schell, Francis J. Kooser, Dr. Edmund M. Kimmel, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Chorpenning, Neff, and George Chorpenning, drug store of Dr. A.G. Miller, Heffley & Bro’s clothing store, George W. Benford’s drug store, J.H. Zimmerman’s shoe store; the Baer Mansard block, including the library and photograph gallery of W.H. Welfley, the large grocery store of C.F. Rhoads & Co., the banking house of Schell & Kimmel, G.R. Parker’s store, and the entire block, ending with the Lutheran church; also the law offices of A.J. Colborn, Samuel Gaither, Valentine Hay, William H. Postlethwaite and others; Marshall’s and Pisel’s stores, and Goodchild’s watch and jewelry establishment, the dwelling of Mr. Stutzman, the variety store of Mrs. J.S. Hinchman, A. Dennison’s saddlery establishment; the dwellings of H.C. Beerits, John O. Kimmel, John Knable, Cyrus Meyers, Mrs. Ankeny and Mrs. Samuel Bricker; the fine large building occupied by Henry C. Beerits, J.F. Blymyer, A.H. Coffroth, J.L. Pugh, county superintendent of schools, and the elegantly furnished lodge rooms of the Masonic fraternity; Mrs. Tredwell’s millinery store and a barber shop and Mr. Isaac Hugus’ dwelling; both newspaper offices, the Herald and Democrat, with their presses and material, were destroyed, and the Presbyterian church, and the dwellings of Michael Kiefer and Daniel Weyand, the engine-house and other buildings belonging to parties the owners’ names of which could not be learned.
A volume could be written of this fire, of the many incidents (some very grotesque and ludicrous in their nature, and observed and duly appreciated, even in the midst of the general alarm) and hairbreadth escapes, of the heroic deeds of brave men and women, and of the spontaneous generosity of the citizens of Berlin and other surrounding towns, but the space allotted us in this work forbids further enlargement. We merely add, therefore, that no lives were lost and that Isaac Simpson, Esq., was the first man to put up a new building after the fire. In less than forty-eight hours after the conflagration had ceased, his house was ready for occupancy.
(Source: History of Befford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)
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