Local News: Shawville sustained another severe ordeal from the fire fiend by the destruction of the Pontiac House, the only public hostelry in the village, between 8 and 11 o’clock on Tuesday night. Bad and deplorable as was the scourge, citizens in general are deeply grateful that the village escaped as well as it did because had the fire got beyond the bounds of the hotel premises, there is no telling where it would have ended.

The fire started about 8:30 in a stable located on the southeast corner of the quadrangle of buildings which formed the Pontiac House property. This stable was directly connected with the hotel by a driving shed, wood shed and kitchen, all built of wood. But the progress of the fire towards the hotel was checked in its advance by men carrying water to the roof of the kitchen in pails and throwing streams from the hand pump and chemical extinguishers. The big fight to save it came some time later when the hotel got fairly ablaze and the heat became terrific as only a few feet separated it from other structures. At the same time, on the east side, another desperate battle waged in saving Wilson’s garage and hall. This building was only three feet from the hotel wall and it was kept continuously drenched with water, both from the ground and the roof until the fire subsided.

About nine o’clock in the evening following the fire, part of the front wall of the hotel collapsed so in case of accident, it was then deemed advisable to tear down part of the remaining wall to a safe level, as the work of rebuilding, in any event, is not likely to be undertaken for some time.