1908 - Paintsville's Most Tragic Fire
On Friday October 23, 1908, the Big Sandy News of Louisa informed its readers in large bold headlines of an "AWFUL TRAGEDY" in Paintsville. Five members of the George Stafford family lost their lives in a fire on Main Street.
Here is how the Big Sandy News told the sad story:
"Sunday night (October 18, 1908) about 10 o'clock, while many of our citizens were just preparing for sleep, and many more resting in peaceful slumbers, the stillness was suddenly broken by the alarm of fire and the scene of quietude and rest was turned immediately into one of excitement and grief. Citizens rushed into the streets to behold what was truly the saddest affair ever witnessed in the town of Paintsville.
"The angry flames rushed heavenward, carrying with them the shrieks of helpless sufferers, making a spectacle not soon to be forgotten by our people.
"The fire was in the old dwelling at the corner of East and First Streets (now Main), near the M. E. Church South, occupied by Mr. George Stafford and family and an invalid lady named Mrs. Liza Lavender. It seems to have had its origin in the kitchen but no one knows definitely. The family was asleep and when they awoke they found their escape cut off by the flames as they leaped from room to room and up the stairway to the second floor. The stairway led up from the rear of the building, and when once on fire escape was impossible. The father, one son and two daughters (young women) rushed to a half window in front of the building, but failed to leap, whether from excitement or suffocation will never be known. Side by side they met death in the most horrible form imaginable. The sister, when their bodies were recovered, were found to have died clasped in each other's arms.
"Mrs. Stafford in a leap for life, leaped to death from a second story window, and of a family of seven only two sons survive, who in some miraculous manner escaped the awful fate."
The Louisa newspaper article continued its account of the terrible event explaining that the aged invalid lady, Liza Lavender, was in a room on the first floor of the building and had not yet retired. She apparently discovered the fire in time to make her escape through the front window of her room with the assistance of those who had rushed to the scene of the conflagration.
The dead were George Stafford, 60; Fannie Stafford, 18; Neva Stafford, 16; Charles Stafford, 8; and Mrs. George Stafford, 59. Those who escaped, in addition to Mrs. Lavender, were Ballard Stafford, 22, and Frank Stafford, 15.
The scene of the fire was at the present site of the Big Sandy Hardware building at the corner of East Street and Main Street. The newspaper's reference to the "M. E. Church South" was to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a brick church building then situated on the presently vacant lot beside the new Paintsville Utilities building.
The Big Sandy News of October 23, 1908, concluded its story by observing "The horrible catastrophe has cast a pall of gloom over Paintsville and the surrounding country, and is the sole topic of conversation. Business for the greater part of the day was well nigh suspended."
Paintsville would not have an organized fire department for another 18 years.
