A sudden change of wind and weather last night at 6:20 o’clock, with a sharp tumble of the mercury and an accompanying “blow” which approximated gale velocity, gave the Elizabeth City fire department half an hour of the most strenuous going the firemen had had since Halloween night.
In 25 minutes, the fire man answered six calls in widely scattered parts of the city. All apparatus was pressed into service, and the department extinguished all blazes without damage having resulted in any instance. All were flue fires.
The first summons came at 6:35 o’clock, just as the wind was gaining headway. This initial chimney blaze was on Bell street. Two minutes later, a call came from box 73 on Hunter street. Fire Chief Flora went with his own men on this call, and they found plenty to do. They put out chimney fires at the homes of Lucy Bond and Eliza Bolding, and at the store of Water Powell. All are colored.
At 6:50, the department was summoned by phone to put out a flue fire at the home of Defus Smith on Queen street. The last call was received at 7 o’clock for a similar blaze at the residence of David Cherry on Cypress street.
Failure of a large generator at the city power plant Thursday night resulted in the city being thrown into partial darkness both that night and Friday night, a smaller auxiliary generator being unable to carry the entire “load” of both street and home lights. Repairs were under way Saturday morning, and the Superintendent J.C. Parker stated the plant would be on a normally functioning basis Saturday night. There were no street lights in the downtown section Friday night until 9 o’clock.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., Saturday evening, Feb. 20, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074042/1926-02-20/ed-1/seq-1/
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