New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1906-02-07
QUICK ACTION SAVES MILL
Young ManDisplays Rare Presence
of Mind.
Jumps From Third Story Window
to Apply Chemicals.
Damage to Mill is so Slight That
it Will Not Interfere.

The heroic action of young Mike
Flick and a companion saved the New
Ulm Roller Mill of this city from de-
struction Saturday night and the young
man is deserving of Carnegie medal
for bravery and rare presence of
mind
He was coming out of Ferdinand
Gollnast's place at near II O'Clock
when he noticed a flame shoot out Of
the cupola of the. smut room Of the
mill and Immediately turned in the
fire alarm to- the department and then
proceeded to do what he could to put
out the fire. Rushing to the upper
stories OF the mill he jumped to the
roof of the smut room and his COM
paniOns lowered chemicals from the
mill to him. He used three of these
they completely extinguished the fire
SO that by the time the department was
on hand there was nothing for them to
do except to see that no fire remained
smoldering in the dust Of the MILL
This act of the part Of young Flick
no doubt saved the mill for the build
inc is frame and the interior covered
with combustible dust which once fired
would have caused one explosion after
another and there would have been no
possible way of preventing the COM
plete destructiOnof the building. Quick
as the action of the fire department
was in getting to the fire, they would
not have sbeen there il time to have
prevented the flames from the smut
room communicating to the mill proper
had Flick been few minutes later in
getting to the seat Of the trouble.
1t is thought that d spark from a
passing engine blew into the open work
of the cupola Of the building and found
no trouble in generating fire in the
accumulation of dust in which II
LODGED. AS there is always more OF
less danger to mills from explosions
which are not infrequentlnsmut rooms,
these places are usually constructed
independent of the mill so that in case
there is an explosion they blow of
from the main structure and do 1t nc
damage. The one at the New Yin
Roller mill is built next to the tract
and is the low she'd in the rear Of the
q mill. ,ou, :,
the part of the owners OF the plan
when they heard of the fire because o
the large amount OF flour which l:
stored in the mill. 1t is practlcall,
fnl] in all the departments, so that ;
loss would have been greater at Thu
time than at any other time OF tn
year.
IT was a bitter cold night but tina
had no influence in the actions OF tn
fire department, the members Of whic
responded promptly to the call an
! were on hand in a remarkably sho1
time and had the entire equipment o
the ground as quickly as it wa
possible.
The owners of the mill are yer
complimentary in speaking OF the ae
tion of young Flick, who is really dc
serving of all the praise for what n
did at a time when moments countet
He was familiar with the mill havin
once been employed there and kne
i,,sr where to find what he wanted.
The damage to the property is S
slioht that it is scarcely worth mel
tioning, but the fire demonstrated tt
kyalue of the chemicals when used
time and placed where they could q
what they we're intended to do.