"An explosion followed by fire
destroyed the four-story brick
"Twin Mills" on Central St..
Farmington, Tuesday afternoon.
The blaze has temporarily put
between 60 and 65 employees of
the Davis Manufacturing Co. out
of work, but Mrs. Robert Davis,
who Is the managing owner, said
that plans are in the works to
reopen.
"We will pick up the pieces
and start again" she said.
Contacted yesterday morning,
Mrs. Davis said that plant
officials would spend the day
with Insurance people, and in
hunting for available space. Once
suitable quarters are found, and
retooling can be accomplished,
work will resume.
She hopes quarters can be
found in Farmington, so that
work can begin within a week or
two Mrs. Davis has been
operating the wood heel shop
about a year ago.
No serious injury was reported
during the 5 hour blaze by over
a hundred mutual aid firemen
from 7 communities but
Rochester Fire Chief Raymond
Duhurst was rushed to the
Frisbie Memorial Hospital and
treated for smoke inhalation and
fatigue before being released
that evening.
The building which has been
part of the central Farmington
scene since its construction in
1882 was presently being used as
a wood heel shop. Reports have
it that a short circuit occurred at
11 30 a.m. on a spraying machine
for a highly inflammable laquer
being operated by Miss Joan
Cardinal and that workmen
believed that the small fire
which began had been
extinguished only to find soon
that it had broken out In both
sections Of the upper story of
the building.
The fire was brought under
control at about 4:00 p.m..
under the direction of Fire Chief
Robert Ricker but burning
continued between the brick
partitions well into the night.
The All Out was sounded at
2 00 a.m. Wednesday
No estimate of the loss was
known at press time but it was
felt that the building was
damaged beyond repair with the
two upper floor* nearly
completely gutted and water
damage so severe below that It
appeared unlikely that repairs
would be practical.
The budding, which until late
years housed a shoe
manufacturing plant, held
employment for several hundred
persons during its peak.
It was vacant until the Davises
purchased it 3 years ago since
1957 when the H.O. Rondeau
Co.. closed Its doors.
Mutual aid fire department
teams from Farmington.
Middleton. Milton. Rochester,
Somersworth. Dover. New
Durham and Portsmouth merged
on the scene and a dozen
streams of water played on the
fire from hydrants and the
Cocheco River."