Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-12-17
"A DANGEROUS BLAZE.
Fire Which Would Have Meant
Hevay Loss Quickly Extinguished.

About $40 Wednesday evening
an alarm of fire was sounded from
the central bell, turned in by Her
bert lPendleton; and the scene of
danger proved to be at the old
Catholic church, now owned and
rented by Ed Hyde as an apartment
building. The lower floor is oc-
cupied bylMr. Hyde as his machine
shop and by Reed & Carter as
dental offices. The three rooms to
the north on the second floor are
occupied by the Badger Club, the
southeast room by G. H. Schaefer,
the blacksmith at the Belz shop,
and the southwest rooms by
the young mems club of the Catholic
church. 1t was in this southwest
room that the fire originated, close
up in the corner behind the stove.
Mr.. Pendleton, who is a member
of the Badger Club, started up the
stairway to 60 to the rooms, and
found the hall filled with heavy,
dense smoke. Although almost un-
able to breathe, he worked his way
up the stairs and soon ascertained
that the fire was located in the
rooms of the other club. Giving
the alarm to several of his fellow
clubmen who sat in the other
rooms, shut off from the smoke, he
rushed down again and gave the
alarm. E. III. Grifis and A. w.
Hastings were just leaving the
courthouse when they heard his
shout, and together they rushed for
extinguishers from the courthouse
and began the fight. On his hands
and knees Mr.. Hastings crawled up
the stairs and into the room where
the fire was, and with the extin-
guisher soon succeeded in checking
the blaze. He and Mr.. Grif1s had
the fire well under control when
the fire department. arrived,
SO that 1t was not necessary to
turn ON the water.
The fire started, it is supposed,
from a pile Of mating which was
placed too near the stove. A pail
of ashes was also near, across
which was laid a stick of wood, which
was almost burned in two. The dry
straw Of the mating furnished food
for the flame, and it was but the
work of a moment for the fire to
get into the wall. "A section Of the
floor about a foot square was
burned out, together with a part of
the partition, which was burned en-
tirely through. The absence of
draught alone kept the fire from
spreading o rapidly, and had
any Of the doors or windows of the
room been open it IS probable that
the building would have been past
saving when the fire department
arrived. The entire collection of
buildings on the south half Of the
block are veritable fretraps, and
had the fire gained any considerable
Roadway the destruction of the
entire number, together with great
danger to the Muesse building and
the tin courthouse would have
been the certain result.
Many amusing things occurred at
the fire. Chief Budworth detailed
a young man who was foremost in
the work Of salvage to carry GER
tain orders to a fireman who had
charge of the hydrant. On deliver
ing the orders the young man was
promptly told by that worthy to
go back and shut your d-n
mouth" emphasized by a vicious
swing of a heavy pipewrench. One
member of the Badger Club stood
around bewailing the breaking of a
small handlamp by one of firemen;
while another alleged that some
half dozen cigars had ~mysteriously
disappeared from the stores of the
club. They should be thankful that
the club rooms and all their be-
longings yer not destroyed; and a
whole box of cigars might very
properly have been rendered the
workers for their prompt and
efficient action.