Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-05
DIRE
DISASTER! !
In Minneapolis Mil District.
Four FIGURING Mills and a Cotton
Mill Destroyed by Fire Yes
terday Morning.
MILL WALLS BLOWN OUTWARD
By An Explosion Similar to the Great
Minneapolis Mill Explosion
of 1873.
FOUR MEN INSTANTLY KILLED,
And Several Others Wounded by the
Falling and Flying Stones
and Timbers.
LOSS HALF A MILLION DOLLARS
But Of the Flour Mills Less Than a
Tenth of the Mill Capacity
eOf the City.
LOSS HALF A MILLION DOLLARS
But Of the Flour Mills Less Than a
Tenth of the Mill Capacity
eOf the City.
GOOD WORK OF THE FIREMEN
IN Stopping the Fire at Critical Points
Of Great Danger.

that on May I'd, 1878, the milling district of
Minneapolis was almost entirely destroyed,
by most Of the largest and best Touring mills
being literally shattered into atoms by ter
rife explosion which originated in a fire
breaking out in the great Washburne mill,
and which was, like fash of lightning, CON-
municated to mill after mill, in which explo.
sions occurred in such rapid sue
eession as to be almost absolutely blended
into the laundering report which shook the
city and surrounding country, as If it were
toy in the hands of Hercules, oecasioning
frightful loss of life and property. Phoenix
like new and larger mills sprung up, as by
magic from the ashes of the wreck. New and
later improved machinery had been used In
their construction. The capacity of the mills
and the quality of the products
were consequently materially increased,
and improved even to almost perfection.
Everything seemed prosperous. Flour was
bringing an advanced price, and was in un=
usual demand. Wheat, which for some time
during The past month had become scarce and
owing to the inability of the railroads to sup
ply the requisite number of cars needed In the
shipping of the same, was being received in
abundance from the agricultural resources of
the great Northwest, when yesterday morning
the fattering prospects the millers had every
reason to entertain were suddenly doomed to
bitter disappointment-for at least time.
THE BEGINNING.
At a few moments before o'clock fire
broke out in the basement OF the Pillsbury B
mill. When first discovered the flames were
making rapid progress up the betting shaft.
like lightning the fell destroyer spread from
object to object until the whole mill was
mass of lurid flame lighting up the city as if
by an hundred electric lights As soon as
possible the alarm was turned in from box
25, that box, which when it flashes its inteli-
gence to the headquarters of the fire depart
ment, it never fails to send thrill to the
very heart of even the brave veteran fire.
men. The department responded manfully
and with amazing agility, but when they
reached the scene of disaster
the flames had made such
astonishing progress as to fill every spectator
with well founded dismay. The apparatus was
quickly in operation and the flremen working
like heroes, but the whirlpool of water which
they poured in upon the devastating fend had
lite effect, and the dreaded flames continued to
spread and the entire structure was wrapped
in one massive blaze.
THE NEXT VICTIMS.
Thirty minutes had perhaps apsed
when the destroyer crept steadily
into the Excelsior mill, which was not long
in succumbing to the monster. Thence the
flames connected with the Minneapolis mill,
which was next adjoining, and the forked
tongues leaped toward lurid sky. Chief
Brackett we'll knew that this was ominous of
a repetition of the holocaust of 1878, and
quickly called the attention of Assistant En-
gineer Fredricks to the danger, saying :
Neal, you had better get stream of water
on that dust house before it blows up" Un-
doubtedly this caused the stout heart of the
noble assistant engineer to blanch,
but he never swerved from his
duty. He stood heroically at his
his post when in moment terrific explosion
occurred, upheaving the Minneapolis mill and
throwing 1t to the ground in fragments,
burying beneath the blackened ruins the bodies
of four men, among their number the brave
assistant engineer. The trestle-work Of the
Transfer Railroad company was also shattered
into splinters in front of the mill.
The hundreds of people who had ere this
assembled at the scene Of causalty came for.
ward and profered their assistance in the en-
deavor to rescue the bodies of the dead and
manned.
Relentlessly the fire continued its progress
until the entire mill was enveloped in its de.
structive embrace and was terrible sheet oi
fame. Every heart stood still. Al
every instant another death dealing
explosion was expected and awaited
with dread yet the fremen strug
gled on, never for an instant turning back in
cowardiee upon the imminent danger which
stared them relentlessly in the face
The Cotton mill, which was somewhat out
of the reach of the firemen, it being in the
rear of the Touring mills, and the intense heat
being insuferable, was also discovered to be
prey to the flames, and not many minute.
elapsed ere it was also licked up.
Another and Detailed Account.
At about $50 yesterday morning, a fir,
alarm was sounded from the platform mil,ins
district of Minneapolis, which called to thu