Just before midnight on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1955 Harold Wallace smelled smoke. He and his family were living above the store he owned on Main Street at the corner of Fancher Avenue. Today this is the location of new store he built after the fire.
The fire that destroyed these three stores started just before midnight on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1955.
Can you identify any of the people in this photo? Click to enlarge.The couple in the center is Edward and Evelyn (Forscutt) Lalik, parents of Fair Haven residents: Edward Lalik Jr, Diane (Lalik) Roden, and Millie ( Lalik) Stevens. (Thank you Millie.) Does anyone know the other two men in this photo? Click to enlarge.Laying of the foundation for the new store, which opened August 2, 1955, less than five months after the fire.
2 Replies to “1955 Fire”
I noticed that my mother and father are in one of these photos. It’s the last black and white picture that has a man on the left side and a couple in the center. That’s Edward and Evelyn (Forscutt) Lalik, parents of Fair Haven residents: Edward Lalik Jr, Diane (Lalik) Roden, and me, Millie ( Lalik) Stevens.
I have been carrying a copy of this picture around in my car in hopes that I would cross paths with Dick Hilton. I wanted to ask if he could identify the man on the left. I finally saw him today at the P.O. He didn’t know who that was, but he had an interesting story.
He said that the night of the fire, he and Bud Parsons were coming back into Fair Haven after roller skating in Fulton. They were running out of gas so they were going to leave the car at Roy Maynard’s and come back the next morning. When they got out of the car, they smelled smoke. Bud ran down to the Fire Dept. to sound the alarm. Dick went to tell Wally that there was a fire. Wally’s wife Carol was bowling in Wolcott. He and Wally got the kids out. He also told about trying to save some of the post office things, but Sherwin Hill (who worked at the PO) kept resisting removing postal property. Dick said that made him so mad. He said it was quite a night!
I noticed that my mother and father are in one of these photos. It’s the last black and white picture that has a man on the left side and a couple in the center. That’s Edward and Evelyn (Forscutt) Lalik, parents of Fair Haven residents: Edward Lalik Jr, Diane (Lalik) Roden, and me, Millie ( Lalik) Stevens.
I have been carrying a copy of this picture around in my car in hopes that I would cross paths with Dick Hilton. I wanted to ask if he could identify the man on the left. I finally saw him today at the P.O. He didn’t know who that was, but he had an interesting story.
He said that the night of the fire, he and Bud Parsons were coming back into Fair Haven after roller skating in Fulton. They were running out of gas so they were going to leave the car at Roy Maynard’s and come back the next morning. When they got out of the car, they smelled smoke. Bud ran down to the Fire Dept. to sound the alarm. Dick went to tell Wally that there was a fire. Wally’s wife Carol was bowling in Wolcott. He and Wally got the kids out. He also told about trying to save some of the post office things, but Sherwin Hill (who worked at the PO) kept resisting removing postal property. Dick said that made him so mad. He said it was quite a night!