The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1936-10-29

elapsed before the alarm was
sounded. Investigation from sew
eral sources indicates that pos
sibly five minutes and not over
seven elapsed before the siren
was sounded. Mrs. Ness said
she thought the fire was dis
covered at S:45, or later, although
she was not sure as to the exact
time, while the telephone central
says that it was shortly after S:4S
when the first call came in to the
switchboard. There may have been
some delay in the matter of sound
ing the alarm, but Chief Fish
states that from the time he re-
ceived the first message until he
arrived at the fire was not over
three minutes. The first call to GEN.
trail reported it as chimney fire.
In this matter the order to tele-
phone operators in regard to sound
ing general alarms in case of fire
has been given that they check the
seriousness of the fire from the
person reporting. They are to make
an immediate report to Chief Fish
or in his absence to his assistant,
who will tell them what to do. IN
less the operators can be certain
that the fire is one that might be
serious they must await the Chiefs
authorization to sound the general
alarm.
Here is what actually transpired
on the switchboard during the in
terval between the first report I'M
til the time of the general alarm
The operator in charge states that
someone had asked for the time at
S:48. Within what she believ-
ed to be two or three minutes
the first report was called in. Since
that first report gave it as a CHM
ney fire she had no case to sound
the general alarm. She immediately
called Chief Fish's home and Mrs.
Fish answering said Mr. Fish would
be right up town. Mr.. Thiegs called
then from the bowling alley re-
porting the fire as serious. And
again the operator called the Fish
home, and related the new develop
ments to Mrs. Fish. Mrs Fish said
that she would tell the Chief, how
ever Mr.. Fish said later that he
had already left the house. Then
the bowling alley telephone went
out of order and Mr.. Thiegs called
from Gus Place. Two other reports
came in while the operator was
awaiting orders from Chief Fish
Mr.. Thiegs, she believed, called a
third time, this time telling her to
do something. She Immediately re-
called Fish's for the third time,
but was told that time that Mr..
Fish had gone. Then came the call
ordering the general alarm. Since
none of these calls overlapped but
were all placed following one an
other, the operator believed the
time elapsing from the time of the
first report to the time of the first
general alarm was between 5 and 7
minutes. There might be some dis
crepancy in time, but it must be
remembered that those we have in
terviewed did not check the time
accurately.
Owing to the fact that several
some were hunting, it was neces-
sary to sound the alarm twice fol-
lowing the general alarm, as more
men were needed in the work.
Mrs. Ness stated that she was not
decided as to whether they will be
able to open their coffee shop
again, but that she liked the loca-
ton on Third Street and possibly
would reopen if the building was
to be repaired. Mr.. Thiegs stated
that he plans to open a bowling
alley as soon as he can get a suit
able location.
Water and smoke damage was
severe in the Unger Furniture
Co.'s. building, and since the fire
the store has been closed while ad-
justors estimated the loss. The loss
is the more severe as the company
had already placed holiday and
other merchandise in the store for
winter sale. The entire stock will be
cleaned up and will be placed on
fire sale until all is sold. The store
will remain closed until Thursday
morning, November 9Th. In the
meantime the office is located
near the front door for the conven-
fence of patrons.
The Unger Furniture Co., used
the upper rooms of the Pendergast
building for storage of merchan.
disc and all of this was a total
loss. This also made fire fighting
difficult as $50 mattresses Just re-
ceived had been placed in one
room, and other merchandise was
packed tightly in other rooms.
Inside The Fire Lines
One fire laddie had a narrow
squeak when a hose got out of con-
troll. Walt Gritzmacher went up
ladder to the second story window
with AL Frederickson. When the
pressure hit, the hose got away
from AL and Walt was flung to the
underside of the ladder where he