The Dickinson press., 1916-04-08
FIRE DESTROYS
n. P SHOPS AND
ROUND HOUSE
MACHINE SHOPS, HEATING
PLANT AND NINE STALLS
DESTROYED.
Fire Most Spectacular Ever Witnessed
in Dickinson Thousands of
People Lined Streets.


Fire, Saturday evening, completely
destroyed the Northern Pacific ma
chine shops, together with all tools
and equipment, the boiler washing
plant, heating plant, and nine stalls
of the 45-stall round house. The fire
was discovered about 7:45, above the
entrance to the office of the old
round house in the north wing. An
immediate alarm was turned in, and
this was quickly responded to by
both the city and railway fire de-
partments, but by the time the
water was turned on a few minutes
later, this entire section of the round
house was mass of flames. The
fire spread with lightning speed,
owing to the fact that the walls,
floors and fixtures had become soaked
with oil through the constant use of
the premises for several years.
Despite desperate efforts by the
fremen to the contrary, the roaring
mass of flames gradually advanced to
the heating plant and shops. When
the fire fighters saw that these
structures were doomed they gave
saving of the oil house, located near
where the fire originated, and the
south wing of the round house, which
is a wooden structure. Upon several
occa sions the interior of the oil
house caught fire, and the flames
leaped about the great oil tanks, but
they were extinguishcd each time be-
fore any explosion occurred. This was
the point Of danger, and had an ex-
plosion of the oil tanks occurred, the
fire undoubtedly would have spread
perhaps to the Hughes e. Deiters
electric and heating plant and to the
Occidcnt elevators and the Mandan
Mercantile Co. lumber yards.
The yard crew was busy almost in
stantly after the alarm, pulling away
freight cars and locomotives that
were in danger. There were six To-
comotives in the burning section of
the round house, passenger engines
No. 2179, 218O, 2182 and 2183, and
switch engines Nos. 1915 and 2439.
A locomotive was run into the flames
and hooked on to several of the burn
ing engines in turn, but owing to
the fact that the stalled engines were
"dead" they could only be pulled as far
as the turn table, and despite the
heroic measures to save them, the
locomotives caught a lot of the heavy
fire nevertheless.
The machine shops, heating boiler,
washing plants, with it's expensive
and fixtures, were total
loss.
The fire was one Of the most spec
tacular ever witnessed in this city,
and thousands of people lined Willard
street and Broadway, the railway
tracks, box cars and tops of buildings
to watch the progress Of the flames
and the game fight put up by the fire
fighters. Along in the early morn
ing hours the fire was finally
checked, the tired fire laddies and
railroad men returning to their
homes.
The following day, before the
twisted irons were yet cold, force
of workmen were on the scene,
clearing up the debris. The burned
engines were pulled out and taken
either to the shops at Mandan, Brain
CIu VI 1lCHu1VC IOI ICH1lI CClu-
porary washing plant has already
been installed, and work of recon-
struction will undoubtedly begin soon.
All of the buildings destroyed were
of brick and these will undoubtedly
be replaced with structures of similar
material, but probably more COM
modious in size. 1t is the belief of
railroad men that the remaining por-
tion Of the old roundhouse will be
torn down, and an entirely new
structure built, having brick floor
throughout.
The only fireman to meet with an
accident was J. l.. Hughes, county
auditor, who fell into one of the
engine pits and sprained his hip
quite badly. Jack is made Of pretty
tough material, however, and day
or SO later he was around town again
without even the semblance of a limp.
Railroad men differ greatly upon
the estimate of loss sustained, some
stating that it will not go much over
$4,000. Others claim it will run as
high as $15O,OOO. The question of a
loss hinges upon the ex-
tent of damage done to the locomo-
tives. The passenger type engines
were all practically new, and the
damage to them will. naturally be
quite an item.