The daily sentinel., 1908-05-11
SENTINEL VISITED BY BIG FIRE

The fine, large and new office build /
ing of The Daily Sentinel suffered
serious damage yesterday as a re-
suit of fire which for time
threatened to destroy the entire build
ing and plant.
Owing to the heroic and superb eff
forts of the Grand junction fire de-
partment and friends of The Sentinel
Il complete loss of the property was
prevented.
The fire was beyond doubt one OF
the most stubborn fires that has oc-
CURED in the city in many months.
and its location made it extremely diff
ficult to fight the flames with success.
The fire created great excitement
and shortly after the alarm was
sounded a great throng had gathered
around The Sentinel building on Main
street.
Saturday evening the basement and
first floor of the building occupied by
the offices and plant of The Sentinel
were closed as usual There was lit
tie or no fire in the furnace room. AS
late as 8 o'clock in the evening Mr..
Bunting. editor and owner of The Sen
tinel, passed through the Office, work
rooms and basement and saw that ev-
erything was all right.
Sunday morning everything ap
peared as usual to several people who
happened to glance into the front Of
fees.
DR.. c. NJ. Kett. one of the half doz-
en- tenants of Offices on the second
floor of the building, has a sleeping
room in connection with his suite of
Offices. He slept late on Sunday
morning.
A I'm. sntt
and at once detected the presence of
smoke in his room and in the hall
way of the upper floor. He became
alarmed. and going down on the street
saw Fire Chief Perry Rogers and
asked him to investigate.
Fire Chief Rogers ran tip the alley
to the rear of the building and saw
smoke coming from the crevices un-
der the doors and windows. The fire
team was out for its morning exer-
else
Chief Rogers ran to Fifth street.
hailed the firemen on duty at the sta
| fion and the alarm was sounded. The
team was soon in sight.
A string of hose was at once at
tached to the plug at Fifth and Main
and dragged to the front of The Sen
tinei building. The wagon then went
to Sixth and Main and another string
of hose was attached and carried
around the court house. down the al
ley to the rear OF the building.
By this time it had been ascer-
tained that the fire was evidently in
the rear of the building in the base
ment. and the string of hose taken
from Fifth street to the front of the
building was pulled down the small
alleyway at the west of the building
to the rear.
1t was seen that the entire lower
floor. both font and back rooms. was
choked with dense smoke. The front
doors of the building were opened
for n moment and ereat clouds of
smoke puffed out The doors were
quickly closed again 10 prevent the
creation of draft. No flames could
be seen. From the rear doors and
windows big volumes of smoke es-
capped.
Fire Chief Rogers kicked out the
windows in the south end of the base
ment and a stream OF water was then
turned into the basement. In spite
of the smoke. Erie Chief Rogers and
two or three of his men then started
into the rear doors of the building
with line of hose. The men were at
| first overcome. and one or two of
them had to be dragged from the
building but were soon revived. Chief
Rogers was able to detect blaze
creeping up the stairway of the base
ment. He realized that the floor was
on fire from underneath and ordered
one stream played on the floor in an
effort TO thoroughly soak it. The
smoke was terrible and the firemen
and others who entered the building
worked with greatest difficulty. but
the fire fighters were not daunted.
Chief Rogers and one or two of
his men crawled through the south