Much like the victims of Hurricane Katrina this fall, the residents of Eustis found themselves homeless in the wake of disaster in 1903.

The catastrophe happened on a date that is now infamous: Sept. 11. On this windy day, sparks escaped a defective chimney in the Coburn House, starting a fire on the hotel’s roof. Eustis had no fire wagons and no volunteer fire department. Its only way of fighting the flames was to form a bucket brigade from the nearby stream.

The Coburn House was the first in a line of wooden buildings, and as townspeople frantically tried to extinguish the fire with buckets of water, the wind whipped the flames onto nearby structures.

The bucket brigade couldn’t slow the blaze. Within 20 minutes, the 15 buildings in the village were burning. The heat became so great that buildings on the opposite side of the street even caught fire. No bucket brigade could quell such an inferno, and as the Farmington Chronicle noted, “The villagers were helpless.”

80 percent destroyed

Giving up the buildings for lost, townspeople abandoned the bucket brigade after only about a half and hour. But despite the incredible heat, they turned their attention to trying to save the contents of the burning buildings.

Rescuers hauled merchandise from stores and furniture from houses and deposited them on the street. But the heat and wind were so strong that the material was not even safe outside and went up in flames anyway.

Out of more than 50 buildings in the village, 40 of them were destroyed. Property damage amounted to more than $40,000, nearly a million dollars by today’s standards. Miraculously, no one was killed. But the property damage was so complete that County Commissioner Isaac Greene reported that a one-horse team could carry away what little remains of the buildings.

In an observation that could come from coverage of Hurricane Katrina victims today, the Farmington Chronicle noted that “the saddest of all is the knowledge that the families saved nothing and are practically in a destitute condition.”

Greene traveled to Eustis to witness the devastation. He offered to take back with him for safekeeping all that had been saved.

Leaving the flattened village, Greene’s stage carried only a trunk, a few hand satchels and couple of framed photographs.

Luann Yetter teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington. Additional research by UMF student Danielle LeBlanc.