Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1918-02-01
Morning Fire in Sub-ZerO Wealth
er Puts Building in Great
Jeopardy
EXCELLENT WORK DONE
BY FIRE DEPARTMENT
Teachers Were Good Generals and Got
Children Out SafeIy-SessiOnS
as Usual Monday

Fire. Which broke out in the West
Side school at s 80 Thursday morning
drove the assembling children from the
building, did damage to the extent of
from $500 to $500, and only for the
excellent work of the Ladysmith fire
department, would have left the Strllc-
turc in ruins.
As ii was, there will only be week S
vacation for the pupils and in all of
the rooms but one. sessions will begin
next Monday as usual.
In One Side Only
The damage is confined to the west
side of the building, where in the first
grade room taught by Miss Elizabeth
Jones and the second grade by Mrs
Helen Speidel Middleton, there are
and much damage from water. In the
cloak room too, the door into the first
grade room is charred, the floor is cut
away in spots and the firemen here and
in the southwest room, had to get be-
hind the blackboards and the sheath
ing both in the partition and at the
walls, with axes. The second floor is
practically unhurt though the base
boards at several points was chopped
out to get at fire which from the smoke
seemed to be still working between the
walls.
Schools Open Monday
The east side of the building is as it
was in the beginning and ready for the
sessions on Monday. The school board
went to the building in the afternoon
and viewed the scene. All were pres
ent, o. j. Falge, L. c. Streater, Mrs. j.
w. Car0w and Supt. Rahr. Opinions
differed as to the money damage but
all agreed that if the ice which covered
the stairs and with which the walls
were coated, were melted and the rooms
dried out for the rest of the week,
but the kindergarten which will hold
its sessions at the highschOOl. Men
were at once put at work cleaning up
and repairing.
IhC iii bdScllitk1t
The fire started in the basement. 1t
was hard to get the fire going under
the boilers Thursday and along about
s 80 the .janitor, VIM. Baribeau, got
his poverty wood to making things
sing but carrying AZ pounds of steam
only. He went to the top floors to see
how the heat was being distributed, it
being the coldest morning of the year
When he got back to the lower floor
the rooms were beginning to fill with
smoke and in the basement, pile of
poverty wood behind the boiler was
blazing fiercely. He sent in an alarm
Teachers Were Cool
In the meantime Miss Jones and
Mrs. Middleton, without excitement
and with the skill of good generals,
marshalled their little charges and sent
them home. All the children got out
with their wraps under the direction
Of the teachers.
When the department arrived there
was promise Of fire that would take
all the skill, men and apparatus at it's
command. One of the hydrants was
frozen. \ ''Y'' was put on the hydrant
at the Lake-av front and two streams
soon started Smoke was pouring
from every window and it was black
as midnight in the building. In the
absence of Fire Chief Simon and AS
sistant Chief Cole, everybody took
command and worked as best possible
to get at the flame
Worked Into Walls
From the basement where the boiler
was located in the southwest corner
the fire ate its way up through the
shcathing on the walls and into the
partition between the first grade room
and the cloak room. Floods of water
were poured into the openings cut in
to the walls above the blackboards.
1t took about an hour to get the fire
where danger had disappeared Fire
men were nearly frozen and many of
them were coated with ice 1t was 20
below zero and the water fr0ze almost
as fast as it came from the hydrant
out of doors.
The school board carries $4,000 in-
surance on the building divided among