On Monday morning between 12 and 1 o’clock the fire alarm was given, fire having been discovered at Mr. Charles SLOVER’s wood shed near the Foster wharf.  Both fire companies were out with their usual promptness, the New Bern company putting on the first stream and conquering the flames.  This fire was the work of some incendiary or crank who will yet turn up in the right place.  By the time the companies had stored away their engines the alarm again sounded.  This time it was on the cotton platform in the midst of about 200 bales of cotton.  The New Bern company, though a block and a half further from the fire than the Atlantics, dashed down the street and had on the first stream.  So quick did both companies turn on the water that only sixteen bales caught and were damaged probably one-third or one-half.  It was held by the National Bank.

Source: New Berne Weekly Journal , 20 December 1883, page 3.