St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-09
4 MILL IN RUINS
The st. Paul Roller Mill Com
pletely Gutted by Fierce
Flames,
Entailing a Loss That May
Reach UP as High as
$15O,00O.
By Extraordinary Exertions
the Adjoining Elevator
Was Saved.
Vivid Description OF the De-
struetion Wrought by the
Blaze.
The Mill Was the Pioneer in
Adopting the Hungarian
System.
It's Capacity Was Eight Hum
dred Barrels, It's Force $50
Men.

Shortly after 10 o'clock last night an
alarm of fire was rung in from the cor
ner of Third and Wabasha streets. A
few minutes later the alarm was made
general, and in less time than it takes
to write the entire department, includ-
ing the West side companies, was upon
the scene. A haSty investigation
showed that dense volumes of smoke
were issuing from the basement of the
ST. Paul Roller mills, fronting on West
Third street, at the foot of st. Peter.
The structure is thirteen stories
high in the rear, being built into
and up the side of the bluff,
from the level of the Milwaukee tracks,
and the seat of the fire being in the
lower and least accessible portion of
the Queerly-shaped structure consider
ably increased the difficulties in the
way of effective work by the depart
ment. But very few minutes had
elapsed, however, before the hook COM
panies had scaled the sides of the bluff
on the west side of the burning pile.
and sixteen streams of water were be-
| ing poured into what seemed the
CENTER OF THE OUTBREAK.
Far up into the sky curled a tre-
mendous volume of black smoke, with
which there occasionally blended a
tongue of flame. and the remark made
by a bystander that ''the mill was
dOomed'' seemed but too well founded.
The attention of the chemicals was de-
voted to the protection of the immense
elevator which adjoins the mill prem
ises. and in which many thousands of
bushels of grain were stored. This
structure at first seemed bound to go
with the mill, being separated from it
by less than three feet of space. The
scene from the Wabasha street bridge
| at IL o'clock was one impressive and
striking beyond description. Long
before the fire had reached the Third
street level, sheets of vivid fame were
pouring from the lower windows in the
rear, lighting up the surface of the
river as it never was lighted in carnival
time, showing with weird elearness the
determined faces of the thirty or more
| firemen who stood on ledge of rock on
the west side of the building, halfway
| down the cliff. On one side of them
was the wall of the fre-stricken
structure; before them sheer cliff, de-
scending 100 feet to the river bank; be-
| hind them an inaccessible cliff. The
! outer wall was already
DANGEROUSLY BOWED,
but there came no order to forsake their
posts, and half roasted. with
death more than likely to over
take them at any moment, there
| they stood-brave men all of them.
Looking from Third street down the
bluff to the river. the features of the
| scene were the bulging side wall, be-
meath it the lads in oilskins, with nOZ-
Zles firmly held On the side windows,
| through which the flames were now
bursting, and far below on the Milwau-
| kee tracks couple of waiting trains
unable to pass the confagration, and a
multitude of curious people looking like
| pigmies at the distance and in the dis
tOrting glare which fell upon them. At
| II 80 the flames had reached the roof of
the mill and broke out in the wooden
| cupOla which was consumed like paper
in the fierce heat. Suddenly there was
an OminOuS cracking of the west wall,
| and shout went up-a shout of SYM
| pathy-for it seemed that the men on
| that ledge were doomed. Then the
| crowd fell apart, and, covered with a
| grimy mixture of SCOT and water. Chief
Jackson stepped to the edge of the de-
clivity and hailed the staunch group of
| fire fighters. Come Outr' said the
chief, and with that order came new
| lease of life for those to whom it was
| applied. Barely had the last man as
cended the scaling ladders when the
upper portion of the wall fell with
| A MIGHTY CRASH,
| covering with debris the SPOT where ten
minutes before the men had stood. The
/ two top floors and roof fell in simultan-
eOusly, and a few minutes later the re-
naming ones went down, sending
myTial sparks high into the heavens
and leaving to stand alone the tOttering
walls, now Seething cauldrOn of fierce
| flames. 1t soon became apparent that
the effort to save the elevator would be
successful. the chemicals having done
good work in that direction. The mill
| proper, however, was completely Quilted
at II o'clock, when the fire was under
control. The elevator was saved, but
the mill was a seething mass of ruins.
on which the fremen worked until
morning.
THE ST. PAUL ROLLER MILL
was the pioneer Touring establishment
of the city and was erected in 1874.
After the great mill explosion at Min
neapoliS in 1878, it was thoroughly re-
modelled and came out in 1880 as the
first mill in America to entirely adopt
the Hungarian system of gradual re-
duetion, replacing the old style run of
stone with the modern steel roller. The
elevator was built about the same time
and was enlarged and improved from
time to time, TO Its present capacity of
about 100000 bushels. 1t was as nearly
fire-proOf as possible, being covered with
plates of corrugated iron,and to this fact
| coupled with the eXertions of the fire.
men, its salvation is due. The flour
mill had capacity of 800 barrels per
day, and at the time of the fire was
working double turns, and employing
upwards of 80 Ineh in all departments.
IL turned out The famous brands of
Orange Blossom and Red Cross patents.
1t was owned oy the st. Paul Roller