The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1915-05-28
Klein Building Attire
Heavy Loss On Stock

Heavy Loss On Stock
| Fire that may result I'm personal
less OF as much as $4,000 Ia George
| J. Klein. the well known furniture
dealer. who has been preparing Tor
| 5,ige time. to retire from the bust
ness. partially destroyed what stock
was LETT in his store early this morn :
ing. anu also damaged the building.
| Whatever MIR. Klein actually loses
will probably be OH his stock. There
was about $1,000 worth of goods LETT
! in the place. lie has been CancellinE
his insurance on the STOCK quite
rapidly Mr.. Klein made the state
ment this morning that he thought
! the insurance that he had left ON the
stock was I'm the neighborhood oi
$4,000. not nearly enough to cover
the chattels destroyed by the fire.
! Mr.. Klein said he had about sl1.~l
insurance on the building itself. so
hr has no fear of any loss on account
of damage to that property. The worst
damage TO the building was in the
rear part. on the first floor. Ii was
here that the fire seems To have orig
/ mated Near the back door along the
alley the floor was almost burned
through. Though the rest of tn"
building most of the damage was from
smoke, heat and water.
Origin Of Fire Unknown.
! How the fire originated and
II actually began can only he conjcc-
turcd. II certainly started some time
during the night. Ferdinand Heinz. q
young man who works at the Hem
Zimmerman bakery. on South FiC'
street. near Jackson. and sleeps nm
stairs. turned in the alarm over the
Northwestern telephone at $50 this
morning His room has window
facing towards the Klein buiiu -
Ills brother. Carl Heinz. who sleeps
in the same room. happened at that
time TO get up for "A drink of water.
and he noticed the glare from the
burning building. He reused fcrd' -
nand. who quickly called up the fire
station and told Of the fire. At thar
time II seems that one or more of Il.
locomotive engineers down in IL
IdliIOdu NdIuS iidu HO'lICh tIi' Stdi -
of the fire. for some loud and con
t!nuous whistiing was heard from that
direction.
Was Quick Response.
The fire department responded
quickly. Three lines Of hose were
soon playing on the burning building.
two in the rear. where the main fire
w&s. and one from the front. Two
lines of hose at the back ran through
the alley. enc from the Jackson stree
side and the other from Cherry
street. The pressure Of the water
reservoir was so strong that il was
found entirely unnecessary To use the
engine at all. Chief Philip Lcas states
that the pressure was about ninety
pounds.
The fremcn wrestled with n stub
born blaze. hut were equal To the &C
casion. Had the flames gotten well
under Roadway the building must
surely have been destroyed and pos
sibly the entire block would have
been eaten up by fire.
About five o'clock second alarm
was turned In from box No 26, pos
sibly by someone who had just dis
covered there was a fire. At least
the only fire which oct urrcd this
morning was that one which damaged
the Klein building.
II was unfOrtunatr that the work
men. WHO are engaged in the cree
ton OF the new building on the site u.
The old WysonG laundry block. had
l1rt the alley badly blocked with piles
e ,,tI ,,t ,,i,
staclcs. so that the hose could not
be played out through the alley TrnuI
The vehicles in III, usual way. II was
impossible To drive through that par,
Of the alley. ana the hose had to De
dragged through the ally by hand
, This caused some loss Of time.
Pleased With Fire Fighters.
! Mr.. Klein stated today that the
ilrcincn worked well. lie was well
Pleased with the way in which the,
checked and finally conquered til,
blaze. Quite number or volunteers
were nn hand "a help. \ SECOND alar'
was turned in at i:In. ry $50 thu
fire was out
3 Only one man was hurt during thr
fire fight. and that was the chi"'
Hiip LIAM. NbuNt HN' "tIbNh Ht
happened To be inside the building
and tried TO walk over the floor ncai
the back door. whore the fire has
nearly burned through The nnrl
gave way under his weight and .hG
fell partly through into the opeI
space below the floor. However. he
managed tn catch himself and. un
aided. regained his footing. One lcf
was somewhat skinned. and ne f.
quite sprain near the hip joint. bu
he continued to walk about and oil
rect the operations of the depart
ment.
On the third story. upstairs. whcr,
the carpets and rugs were kept. there
was scarcely any damage. Most 4"
the harm that was done to tina
property was by smoke
Was Added to BY John Klein.
When John Klein came TO MankatC
in 1896 this building was partly erect.
cd. II was then only % by 500 feet
and two stories high Mr. Klein pur
chased the place and has since added
Ia IL on four different occasions
George Klein. his son. eight years ag,
bought the real estate and sever
years ago bought the furniture store
II is estimated that IL will cos
$1,000 to $1,000 tn fix mp the building
Ia be as good as IL was before tn,
fire.