New Hampshire Statesman

Extensive Fire on The Plain. On Tuesday forenoon last, fire was discovered in that long range of wood land east of this settlement, known as the Dark Plain, and raged with unabated violence through the day, overrunning several hundred acres. The underbrush, together with decayed leaves and grass, and a somewhat fresh breeze, facilitated the progress of the flame, which spread with great rapidity. The fire commenced at a distance from the brow of the bluff which lies on the eastern shore of Merrimack river; but by evening had made its way westward and down the side of the bluff—along which, in a continuous unbroken line, a sheet of flame was visible through the evening and night.

Through the evening multitudes of people viewed from Main Street the brilliant spectacle.—The reflection of the blaze must have been noticed in the night by people in all the surrounding towns.

Further Particulars.—On Wednesday morning the above fire had worked its way nearly up to the Sugar Ball Road and down to the Gulley up which the Free Bridge Road ascends to the Plain. In the course of the forenoon it subsided; when others appeared far south of the space overrun on Tuesday, which were evidently the work of incendiaries. The wind, which was from the west on Tuesday, changed, on the afternoon of Wednesday, to the east, increasing until evening, when it became a gale—driving the above new fires through the woods with great velocity, and creating alarm lest the farming establishments on the western brow of the Plain, south-east of the Lower Bridge, should be consumed; but by the exertions of those who rallied to render assistance, the fire was with difficulty kept off from the dwellings. After dark on Wednesday, the sky being overcast, these fires, the light from which illuminated the firmament over them, made a very brilliant appearance. The snow and rain of Wednesday night and yesterday were timely,—quenching these fires and watering the earth.

It is supposed more than one thousand acres have been overrun by these fires. Sad havoc has been made with young trees. The amount of cord wood destroyed was not so great as by some other fires upon the Plain.