By late spring of 1882, Sussex County was in the grip of one of its many droughts. Farmers were complaining about "short milk and light oats." Nature was setting the stage by this drying up process.

The Sussex Manufacturing Company had converted a building constructed about 1830 and formerly used as a wooden mill into the main building of a cloth mill and dye works. The interior of the old building had long been impregnated with oil used in wool manufacturing. The company employed some thirty-five persons. John Hague of New York was president.

A "picker" machine had been installed in the main building to grind up waste material. A "half grown boy" was placed in charge. One day foreign matter entering the grinders caused sparks by friction, setting the machine on fire. It was considered "miraculous" that the fire was extinguished before it spread. The company was criticized for placing the machine inside a building with so much "self combustible material." However, no action was taken to house the machine in a "secure building" away from other materials. Time went on.

It was past four o'clock in the afternoon of June 13th when the boy began gathering up the waste and feeding it into the grinder. When the grinders reached their high speed of 200 revolutions per minute, eye-witnesses reported that there was a slight scraping sound and sparks flew into the flamable waste. The frightened boy ran away. Other workers dashed buckets of water into the flames, but the fire had caught oil impregnated materials and the fire was gaining ground.

Workers rushed from the building giving a general alarm of "Fire! Fire!" Townsfolk who had been looking forward to the evening hours when the scorching sun would temporarily stop tormenting them were stung to consciousness that weather discomfort was a trifle compared with what they now saw in flames licking through the building and soon shooting out of the roof in "A sheet of Flames."

Sparks and glowing cinders erupted out of the "lurid smoke." Panic seized the near-by storekeepers and residents. The carding mill was catching fire. Showers of sparks soon had the dye-house going. The next building to ignite was the blacksmith shop of John Johnson.

Bucket brigades were driven back by the intense heat. A messenger was sent to the telegraph office at Warbasse's Junction to summon Newton for help. Confusion matched constructive efforts to control the fire. Carpets were soaked in water and thrown over roofs and sides of buildings in an effort to insulate them against the terrific heat. Terrified persons tried to carry possessions from homes and business houses to a place of safety. But where was safety? It seemed that the entire town of Branchville was likely to go. Goods were hastily piled here and there only to be rained upon by sparks and to join their flames to the hideous conflagration.

Pilfering of property reached scandalous proportions in the midst of the fire. One woman from a neighboring town was apprenhended with a full wagon load of stolen goods. Sparks had been carried beyond the village and in one case set fire to a house on its outskirts. It was extinguished "by Italians who were passing by."

The Lackawanna Railroad rushed a train carrying the whole Newton Fire Department with men and equipment in response to the telegram. This was at six o'clock. When the whistle of the rescue train was heard far down the straightway of track a mile from Branchville, cheers and tears greeted the speeding locomotive. It was the first hope that some of the flame-engulfed area might be saved. Those two and a half terror filled hours had seemed like a lifetime of nightmare to the town. Never did a locomotive have greater majestic importance as the train streamed into the station and equipment was gotten into play. A steam operated fire engine was placed so that it could draw water from the raceway behind the stricken area, and soon "three powerful streams of water were dousing the fire." Several buildings were already in ruins. The Bowman Hotel was burning, and the Presbyterian Church had caught fire several times but was saved from extensive damage by fast working bucket brigades.

G.B. Hull and three other men narrowly escaped death from a falling chimney. A Mrs. John Roraback suffered burns when her clothing caught fire. Cats were seen emerging from burning buildings with their fur singed. Martins(small birds) which were in a cage in front of the Bowman Hotel got loose and flew right into the flames.

About eight o'clock, the fire was considered under control. Accounts vary as to how many buildings were destroyed. The best estimate is twenty. The entire center of Branchville had been ravaged with a loss of most of its earliest industrial building and homes.

The "Band of Willing Workers", a society of the Presbyterian Church gave an entertainment on June 29th to aid needy fire victims. The program included "tableaux, charades and musical numbers; closing with the famous 'Broom Brigade' performed by twelve ladies." A strawberry festival climaxed the evening.

Cleaning up the debris was delayed for unexplained reasons. It was reported that by the end of July the "ruins were about the same as the fire left them." Losses were estimated to exceed $100,000.00 which was a staggering sum at that time. Many insurance policies had been lost in the fire and their owners were unable to recover losses. The German American Company is known to have paid the first fire claims. Another insurance company "failed" and could not pay any losses.

A meeting was held June 19th in the Methodist Church conducted by Virgil Crisman an O.S. Bowman to discuss rebuilding the town and to give thanks to those who had risked their lives fighting the fire.