Other days

100 YEARS AGO Feb. 26, 1924

■ The most spectacular fire in years occurred in the downtown district last night … Patrolman Cousins discovered the blaze at 8:23 p.m. He started his night’s work at Capitol Avenue, and upon reaching Third and Main streets, he saw the interior of the Seifer store filled with smoke. He immediately pulled an alarm box, and Company Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5 and aerial truck No. 9 responded … Smoke — dense and suffocating — poured from every window, door, and ventilator of the store … The high pressure streams from the Company No. 2 pump was diverted through a universal nozzle erected on a utility truck on East Third Street, when it was seen that the fire had gained headway … It was not until 10 p.m. that the flames burst through the roof in the rear part of the building.

50 YEARS AGO Feb. 26, 1974

■ Willie Lee Davis, Jr., of Pine Bluff, went on trial Monday in Little Rock’s federal District Court on charges that he robbed the downtown drive-in branch of Simmons First National Bank in Pine Bluff of $44,291 on Dec. 19, 1973. Mrs. Laney Moore, a bank teller, testified that she had been robbed at knifepoint … An FBI agent testified that on the day of the robbery, which occurred around 8 a.m., a knife was found in a trash can about a block from the bank.

25 YEARS AGO Feb. 26, 1999

■ The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Pulaski County Circuit Judge David Bogard’s June disbarment of Whitewater figure Eugene Fitzhugh, 72. Bogard first banned Fitzhugh from practicing law in February 1998, but set aside the disbarment ruling in March 1998 after the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a decision by another circuit judge, John Plegge, for not considering other available sanctions before disbarring state Rep. Jimmie Wilson, D-Lake View, in August 1996. The disbarment came after Fitzhugh pleaded guilty in June 1994 to a federal charge of bribing a financial institution official, former Pulaski County Circuit Judge David Hale.

10 YEARS AGO Feb. 26, 2014

■ A former Little Rock real-estate agent, Brandy Marie Thomas, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison and was ordered to pay $327,000 in restitution for her conviction last summer by a federal jury on four wirefraud charges stemming from housing loans she obtained by greatly overstating her income on loan applications. The one-time owner of a North Little Rock-based realty company, Arnett & Co., received nearly $700,000 from different mortgage companies in 2006 as a result of the scheme, according to her 2011 indictment. She also was accused of pocketing a $48,956 insurance check that was made out to both her and a mortgage company to cover a house fire, although the fire damage was never repaired.