POLAND — The late news at WMTW-TV was on the air when, midway through the broadcast on July 3, 1975, one of the biggest stories in the TV station’s history erupted nearly on its doorstep.

It was the night when a spectacular inferno destroyed the magnificent century-old Poland Spring House.

Firemen, many of them volunteers, responded quickly, but the historic building burned to the ground in a couple of hours as an estimated 3,000 stunned spectators watched.

Memories of “The Big House Fire” were shared among residents of Poland, surrounding towns and the Twin Cities at a screening of restored video from the time of the event. The full-house audience at All Souls Chapel viewed a 26-minute digital reconstruction of the scenes that occurred a short distance away, four decades earlier.

Norm Karkos, a newsman and anchor at WMTW-TV for 25 years, introduced the video program. He explained how Jim Aikman, well-known news director and anchorman at Channel 8, did the minute-by-minute account of the blaze. The dramatic video was captured live by WMTW-TV’s only camera, but it was in the days before equipment was battery-powered and easily carried around. There wasn’t time to shoot film and process it.

The station’s crew quickly spliced as much cable as they could find in order to move the large studio camera a short distance outside the studio. It had a direct view across the resort’s golf course. The Channel 8 studios were at Ricker Inn, which was about 1,600 feet from the huge, but vacant, hotel building.

Aikman kept up a running commentary as the flames moved through firewalls, one after another, and the walls of the five-story structure were quickly consumed. Although a precise cause was never found, it’s assumed the fire started not far from the front corner tower, possibly in the golf course pro shop. The rest of the building was essentially empty, unused and unprotected by a charged sprinkler system.

Although they were almost in the shadow of the big hotel, either building was not reach by the fire.

The audience at the screening continued to reminisce for about an hour Wednesday evening. They moved from All Souls Chapel of 1912 across Preservation Way to the Maine State Building. That historic structure was built in 1893 for the Columbian Exposition, also called the Chicago World’s Fair.

The building as disassembled and brought back to the Poland Spring Inn grounds on 16 railway freight cars, where it was reassembled. It is now used for Poland Spring Preservation Society events and exhibits for the public.

On Friday morning, two days after the public gathering, two witnesses of the fire, Cyndi Robbins, proprietor of the Poland Spring Lodge and other resort-associated operations, and Michel Feldman, grandson of Saul Feldman, owner of the big Poland Spring House at the time it burned, were still getting visits from other people who recalled the fire.

Robbins said she was nearby at the Maine Inn, another one of the buildings on the Poland Spring Resort’s complex, when the massive blaze broke out.

“Two young women pounded on the door,” she said. “They said the Big House was on fire, and I gasped. I never thought it could be the Poland Spring House.”

Robbins said she was amazed to see how fast the standpipe water supply of 350,000 gallons was used up. Fire departments found ways to pump water from Lower Range Pond.

Cyndi and her husband, Mel Robbins, were in negotiations to buy the vacant building from owner Saul Feldman. They had planned to invest more than $1.5 million to renovate it.

“There was never any doubt that we wanted to continue with that plan,” she said.

In the years since the fire and Mel’s death in 2007, she has pursued a remarkable career associated with development and operation of facilities on the property. That includes the Maine Inn (essentially at the Big House site), the Presidential Inn, where the TV studio had been, the Lodge on Route 26 and cottages.

Robbins, who began as a waitress at the Big House at the age of 16, said the Poland Spring Resort has been her life. The first night she served dinner, The Ink Spots, a nationally-popular vocal foursome of that era, was performing. But glitches in the kitchen led to slow service and the customers were not happy.

“I thought I was going to be fired,” she said, but she survived the episode and has enjoyed her career at the resort ever since.

Feldman remembers when his grandfather hosted Sonny Liston and the boxer’s training entourage before the 1965 world heavyweight championship fight in Lewiston with Muhammed Ali.

Feldman remembers watching Liston’s sparring bouts. He was a small boy, so his grandfather would ask Liston training camp personnel to carry him on their shoulders so he could see the event.

He was delighted that Liston accepted a young boy’s invitation to visit his classmates at the Poland elementary school.

Many years later, Michael Feldman served as maitre d’ at the luxurious hotel dining room. He says it’s only recently he learned that the fire grew so quickly probably due to the fact that over the years, so many coats of varnish had been applied to floors.

“It acted just like a fuse,” he said.

Robbins and Feldman are founding members and directors of the Poland Spring Preservation Society.

Raymond Waterhouse Jr., chief of the Poland Fire Department at the time of the blaze, attended the event and explained some the firefighting challenges. Crews had to pay attention to the possible spread of flames into dry wooded areas, he said.

In distinct contrast to the Poland Spring House in the “gilded-age” of the late 1800s, the hotel’s last tenant in the early 1970s was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and 1,100 teacher trainees of the Transcendental Meditation method he developed.

The Maharishi was noted for teaching celebrities, including The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Mia Farrow.

Donations at the Wednesday screening were given to the Poland Fire Rescue Department.