St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-29
CLAIMED NO HIVES
FIRE WAS MERCIFUL TO TENANTS
OF THE BUILDERS, EXCHANGE
BLOCK,
BUT IT WAS A CLOSE CALL
YERXA BROS. PROMPTLY SECURED
POSSESSION OF THE OLD
MARKET HOUSE
\ PHOENiX LIKE RESI- MPTION
Loss VIII Probably Approach $50.
600, With the Smaller Losers
but Poorly Insured.

w lthlH d lew nOurS a1ter prominent
citizens had voted to turn the old
market house into a public library,
! that venerable structure became a
/ fourishing grocery. Groceries Cheap
| er Than Ever" was emblazoned over
| the Wabasha street front by "Yerxa
! Bros, the Phoenix Grocers." The firm
had abandoned their former store at
| Seventh and Cedar streets at a. M
yesterday when the hottest and most
enthusiastic fire witnessed in ST. Paul
! for many months had it in it's en-
! braces.
| The fire was discovered by the ele-
! Vator man, August Kirschbaum, in the
! freight elevator shaft. The shaft had
not been used for long time, and was
| f1oored across at each story, forming
| store rooms. On the second and third
fioors, these rooms were filled with
window screens laid away during the
winter. Kirschbaum opened the door,
| and saw through the opposite door,
| fames ascending the diSused shaft The
| fire had apparently started on the floor
! below, perhaps from electric wires the
! dynamo having been in operation ear
! her in the night. Two clerks employ ed
! In the United States army recruiting
office were asleep in the room next to
I Kirschbaums. He awakened them
| with difficulty, and they hurried down
| stairs. He next awakened Madame
! Favre, dressmaker, who escaped in
! the same way, but when he reached
the room of Mrs. Stewart, another
| dressmaker on the same floor, she, be-
! ing i'll, was too frightened to go far
than ha of hn1 oh
! opened a window upon Seventh street,
and screamed wildly to the firemen be
low Running up stairs Kirschbaum
| pounded on the doors of Nos 412 and
41S, where seven recruits were all un-
conscious of the roaring blaze dozen
| feet away The elevator shaft ex-
tended no further than this story, and
when one of the awakened recruits
! foolishly opened the elevator door and
neglected to close it.. smoke poured out
in great volume. A vigorous draft was
impaired to the struggling flames and
the fire spread sa4sEence along the two
| upper foors.
The recruits climbed out to the fire
| escape on the Cedar street wall along
side the windows of Room 412, and
| escaped easily to the ground. Before
retreating, Kirschbaum stopped long
enough on the fourth floor to arouse
also Herman Pfankuth. an insurance
agert. Flames and smoke intimidated
Mr.. Pfankuth. He, too, took refuge
at the Seventh street window and
mingled his cries with those of Mrs.
Stewart beneath him. Kirschbaum
found the third floor comparatively free
from smoke as he went down; but the
flames had burst from the elevator
shaft. completely cutting off the room
that the two clerks had abandoned a
few moments before, and where they
would doubtless have been burned to
death in the absence Of Kirschbaum's
prompt alarm. The fire escape could
not be reached from this window and
the hallway before its only door was
filed with fame. tes.t
At about the moment when the ele-
vator man sprang from his bed, Lieut..
Sexton, of the police department. was
at Seventh and Wabasha streets. The
lieutenant observed jet of Hight grey
smoke issuing from window on the
fifth floor of the Yerxa building. He
hurried down to Cedar street, got one
glimpse of the red flames behind a
instantly to the central fire station,
two blocks distant. At $3.50 the station
floor watch turned in an alarm, and
Engine Company No. s and Hook and
Ladder Company No. 3, stationed at
this corner, Were opposite the Yerxa
building within two minutes Engines
l and and Chemical / responded to
the same alarm Chief Jackson at once
,N1 l..
second and third alarm combined.
and six more engines with two more
hook and ladder trucks were hurried
to the fire. A wild gale from the south
swept the flames with the utmost ra
pidity toward the Seventh street front.
/ and when Mr. Pfankuth was taken
I down from the fourth story by an ex-
tension ladder his hair and whiskers
We're already singed Mrs. Stewart
was carried down the front stairway
! by Lieut. Burke, of Hook and Ladder
Company No .. Twenty streams were
upon the fire within half an hour from
the first alarm
Three companies of fremen had assembled to
the fourth story and worked there until short
ly after a. M, the roof fell in With the
roof descended with thunderous crashes the
hydraulic elevator. Engine Company No. s
had narrow escape as the tank plunged past
them and lodged just above the third floor
Not until o'clock were. the flames under
control. The salvage corps, directed by Capt
WEitmore, saved from half to three=ouarters
OF IeTXn's stock by promptly placing covers
throughout the first and second floors Chief
Jackson, with his usual SKILL was enabled
despite the fierce gale to save from the
HameS three out of five stories Excent from
water the building was but little damaged
below the fourth story. Well-known occu-
pants of the upper floors were Prof SegaI
ot the st. Paul Art school; Gustave Willius
of the st. Anthony Park North trust: FIR. r.
Wilde, the attorney, and Edward G. Hfne-
baugh. organizer of the Young Mems Cen
tfai Democratic club. MessIs. Wilde and
Hibebaugh suffered little loss except by wa
ter The Publishers Collection agency sus
tanned a considerable loss fully covered by
an insurance of $1,000. On the second floor
were the rooms of the Builders exchange. and
on the fifth floor was Central hall, the scene
OF many minor social events
Although the news of the fire spread with
many narrowing accompaniments such as tba
statement that Mr.. IIinebaugh had enterad
the smoke to disappear forever. and that an
elevator boy had been found on the fourth
hcof burned to a crisp, the actual casualties
reserved themselves into a severe burn on
the neck received by W. E. RYDER. of Hose
Company No. s. The Femcura COMPANY sns-
tanned loss of $1,000; uninsured.
One of the severest losses of the fire was
that OF Prof. Julius Segall, OF the ST. Paul
art school, who had rooms on the fifth floor
III these We're the work of seventeen years
hard study and labor including many works
brought from Munich and other European
ar a, centers which can never be replaced