Insurance adjusters and business owners were engaged Friday in a study of the damage caused by Wednesday night’s fire which destroyed the remodeled New Marion Hotel and ruined businesses in the ground floor rooms of the two-story brick structure on West Main Street. Fire Chief James C. Dungey said part of the walls of the building would have to be torn down as a safety precaution. Building owner Paul Childers was debating whether to rebuild the damaged structure that it was learned that the smoke leaving a hole through which brick fell through to the first floor, some them striking Fireman John Lewis on the arm. He was not seriously hurt. Meanwhile, the fire chief said the fire was seen by several persons several minutes Wednesday night before an alarm was turned in about 7:30 pm. He said several witnesses had told him of seeing smoke coming from the rear of the building but thought it was trash burning outside. He said there were five empty oil drums located in the neighborhood which were regularly used for burning refuse. One of those who saw the smoke was Mrs. Bill Davis, who with her husband operates the Four Way Café near the opposite end of the block from the hotel building. She was working in a room next to the café where she and her husband plan to open a cocktail lounge. She reported the smoke to her husband and he called the firemen. Dungey said that it had been definitely established that the fire started in a locked room formerly used as a kitchen by the Wohlwend Drug Sundries store which once occupied a room on the ground floor. He said there was a possibility defective wiring could have been the cause. He said no one had been in the room that day, so far as could be learned. The former Wohlwend location was used only for storage during construction which had been going on for 18 months upstairs changing the hotel into an apartment house. The fire chief said the fire burned upwards into the second floor as a one story building.

(Extracted from local newspapers and compiled by Harry Boyd, posted at http://www.marionfire.us )