At around 11PM on Sunday, February 18, 1912 a fire was noticed burning in the Bloomfield Mercantile Company's store. The fire spread north from the courthouse on the west side (north of Buck's store) and then jumped to the east side of Main Street (most likely because of an explosion of dynamite from Miller Hardware Company's store). Once on the north end of the east side, it began to move south until it reached the gap between the Bloomfield bank building and the new Stoddard County Trust building. This gap added with stronger winds from the south spared the Trust building and possibly the courthouse. The fire raged for four hours and light from the blaze could be seen ten and twelve miles away. Over $200,000 worth of damages occurred in the city.
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