The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-12-08
p . n
TEACHER COLLEGE
BURNING THEORIES
Suspected Buildings Here
And Winona Fired
PROBES BY The CHIEFS
Ben Banergter Expressed Him
self Regarding the Probable
Cause of Flames

Setting aside all other. probable
causes for the origin of the IRE " hich
destroyed the Mankato State Teach
er's college last February fifth, en-
failing al oss of $5o0000. Fire Chief
Ben. L, Bangergter this morning
stated to the Free Press that he orr.
gin of the fire was still mystery,
incendiarism was the likelycause OF
the big blaze here.
The fire Is still mystery TO us,
after months of thorough inyestiga
ton. We have eliminated all Jother
possible, or probable causes OF the
fire, with the exception of clues
which have pointed to one person
who may have started the fire be-
cause of a "grudge."
I'm our investigation following
the fire, we worked around the the-
orr that this person, who we feel
is mentally deranged, might have
started the fire due to @grldgev he
is known to have had, previous to
the fire, against some of the off
Gals of the college board"
Person Seen In Vicinity.
Eve knew at that. time, thiz per
son had been seen in the vicinity
of the FIRE here on several days
prior to the fire, but we could not
obtain any evidepce which would
connect The person being In the
vicinity Of the college prior or after
the fire.
I'm making our deductions We
have eliminated the probability OF
the fire starting from defective wiz
inx, Spontaneous combustion, or from
the boiIffs ol the building. We
kr44 Tic wiring Was not de-
< &C i've {5erS use. ff1Dus nus OF dol.S
lars Had been recently spent in
putting in new apparatus and that
they had been recently inspected.
The boilers of the building were
not in the main building where the
fire started If the fire had started
in the manual training room, where
there would be plenty oily waste
and cans of paint and varnish, ii
might have been laid to spontane-.
GUS combustion.
I'VE know from our investigation
that the fire started down In the
yentilating system in the wooden
shafts. The conclusion that it
started here from an explosion OF
dust is wrong because there would
nave had to be spark to set off
the explosion. the same as setting
of charge of dynamite"
The investigations of Chief Ban
gerter, in arriving at the conclusion
Al. Ill u
start in the ventilating system, and
bears out the theory, very strongly
that the fire was set by "fire bug"
in as much as the Winona State
Teachers college fire is known to
have started in the same place.
Winona Fire Similar
The circumstances surrounding
the big fire last Sunday at Winona
are directly parallel with those of
the fire here last February. 1t is
the concensus of opinion of State
Fire Marshall G. H. Nettieton, w.
c.. Norton, fire chief of Winona and
Chief Bangerterf that conspiracy
exists to burn college buildings.
Chief Bangerter, however, this
morning stated he could see no
connection between the probable
starting of the fire here by the
mentally unbalanced person, who
held a grudge against the local
school officials, and the Winona
fire or the reported fire at Hamline
University. He stated that 1t was
unlikely the same person had any
reason for having a grudge against
the Winona college officials.
State authorities who are lnvesti-
eating the Winona fire are working
on the theory that fire was started
by a crank. The fires being at al
most the exact time, and on early
Sunday morning, leads the authori-
ties to believe that the crank fire,
bug did not desire a loss OF any
lives, but simply the destroying OF
tbn -, insfitutjnnS