Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1907-05-01
TIRE DESTROYS
Freight DEPOT |

fRt!6HE UEPUl
WISCONSIN CENTRAL BUILDING
is ALMOST A TOTAL
Estimated Damages Of $500, 900 Done
in Spectacular BIaze-!nflammab
Freight Helps to Spread Flames
With Startling Rapidly.
Minneapolis, April 26-Minneapoiis
was visited with a disastrous fire veg
terday afternoon which completely
wrecked the large freight d epot of
the Wisconsin Central railroad at
First avenue north. and First street,
near the union station.
The fire was one of the most spec
tacular seen in the city in years,
sweeping through the long building
with lightninglike rapidity and send
ing columns of flames and sparks
high into the air to threaten the ad-
joining property and make the work
doubly hard. 1t was only by prompt
and efficient work that valuable
wholesale houses in the immediate
vicinity were not also destroyed.
The fire started about $3.50 in the
afternoon and by o'clock the entire
building was total loss, besides sew
eral freight cars standing on tracks
under part of the depot. Estimates
of the loss on both building and freight
stored within are varying, but a con-
sentative estimate places the total
amount at 100000. =
EmpIoye Burns Hands.
The flames originated in the dyna-
mo room, where some oil was ignited.
The fire ran up the belts, and George
Fleming, foreman of the building, had
his hands severely burned attempting
to put out the fire. Burt Nelson, fore
man of the main floor, and Mike
WEIGH and Ira Crockett, employees,
came to Fleming's assistance, but
were unable to stop the spread of the
flames.
An alarm was turned in Immediate
ly, but within ten minutes the entire
building was seething furnace. EN-
ployes of the company barely es-
capped with their lives, so swiftly did
the fire gain Roadway. BY the time
the fire department arrived there ap-
peared little hope of saving the struct-
rre, and the second and third alarms
were turned in and the men set at
work protecting the surrounding
property:
A long freight train had just been
switched onto the tracks which ran
into the first floor of the depot. An
engine was quickly attached to the
cars and they we're pulled from the
build ng with their tops on fire. An
other string of freight cars on the
second track in the building could
not be rescued and were destroyed.
Firemen Have Narrow Escape.
The building was three story
structure, open tow ar Is the river OH
the groud floor where the cars ran in.
The sec md floor opened into the lev
Ell of First avenue north. This FORM
alton gave the wind a good sweep
through the building and famed the
flames. 1t also endangered the lives
of the firemen, and several narrow
escapes from falling walls were re-
corded.
The fire department fought gamely
to the end. On the higher side of the
building the men worked FROM sur
rounding roofs and from the street.
Falling bricks crashed upon and
crushed an unloading platform upon
which the firemen had a moment be-
fore been standing. On the other
side the walls fell outward over the
railroad tracks and several times
narrowly missed the firemen.
Dry packing material and oil stor-
ed in the depot made the flames
especially fierce and were probably
the cause of the speed with which the
fire gained Roadway. Small explo-
sions of oil occurred frequently, blow
ing out small sections of the walls or
sending burning sparks up onto adj
joining roofs.
The building was of freproof con-
struction, of iron and brick, but the
heat bent the big iron Orders like
straw and nothing seemed able to
Withstand the flames. The gallons of
water thrown upon the building
apparently made not the slightest
impression upon the fire and it prac-
tically burned itself out. After the
walls fell and the firemen secured a
more direct play upon the blazing
freight stored within they were more
successful in their effort to subdue
the confagration.
The fire occurred in the artificial am
phitheater which afforded thousands
of spectators an excellent view of the
spectacle. The steel arch bridge and
its approaches were damned with peo-
pie during the entire progress of the
fire. Train service from the union de-
pot was not blocked, although several
incoming and outgoing passenger
trains were forced to feel their wav
along the tracks fartherest from the
burning building while the passengers
within watched anxiously the burning
walls near them.
The building was owned by the
Wisconsin Central road and was val
ued at $153, 900. The read carried full
insurance on the building and incom-
ing freight, but some of the outpo-