The Wrangell sentinel., 1952-03-24
Losses Run Over Million

L ThdE
 Fire caused by the explosion ol Che furnace in the Wrangeu Flee trie and Supply Company, swept through three blocks of the main business district of Wrangell on the waterfront side Friday night eaus- ing damage of more than one mil lion dollars.
 Breaking out at l0:30 pm. the fire ragged until 8 am Saturday morning when it finally was brought under control at the Me Cormack Dock and the Wrangell Cold Storage Last building to col lapse was the Wrangell Hotel, landmark of the community.
 Jimmy Early. six-year-old son of
 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Early, CO., owners with Virgil Newman of WrangeIl Electric, was responsible for the alarm. Jimmy said he smell ed smoke. Mrs Early checked a round their apartment above the store including the refrigerator, which had been causing a little trouble, but could find nothing wrong. Jimmy insisted he could still smell smoke so Charley started downstairs to look around. As he opened the hall door. pillows of smoke came up the stairway. Wrangell's most disasterous fire since the great conflagration of 1906 was under way.
 The Earlys were just able to % out in their night clothing.
 The volunteer fire department was immediately on the job and for a time it looked as if they could contain the blaze in the Early-Ney- man building but the inferno spread under the structure and to the piling on the waterfront. ig- hitting the Chisholm building oc- cupied by Lee Chisholm, and leap ing to the Lowell Sturteyant bar Der shop next door
 Though firemen and their help CTS did heoric work with the limit ed water pressure available, the blaze soon was out of control,
 Property damage may run as a million and a half dollars when complete inventory is taken.
 Scores of apartment and hotel dwellers were left homeless, some with their life's labor in ashes.
 By valiant work, the firemen saved the opposite side of the street but damage was extensive from the Bro. William Gum building to the Stikine Club building at the north end of the street Once the flames leaped to the Wrangell Drug and Den O. Sweets, owned by MT. and Mrs. Jams Nolan, but great work on the part of the fire fighters ex- tirguished the blaze. By constantly playing water on the buildings on the upper side of the street, dam age was held to a comparatively low figure.
 1 Windows were broken in virtual ly all the buildings on the north , side of the street and all the busi- 1 ness fronts were scared and blist- cred by the intense heat. Dyna- mite, used unsuccessfully to stop the fire, also took toll of windows
 Damaged properties include Will liam Gunn's shoe repair shop and express office, The Sentinel, the Cassiar Cafe. Mildred's, Meredith , Custard building. Wrangell Variety Store, Den O Sweets and Wrangell Drug, Fred Cunningham building Irene's Wheeler Drug store, Camp bell Bros, Bank of Wrangell, old Patenaud building, Wrangell Tran sfer, Benjamin's store, Stikine Club l in the old Mathieson building.
 Coast Guard Arrives
 When word of the fire was flash i ed to Coast Guard headquarters, the ] two cutters White Holly and Sweet Briar were ordered to Wrangell
 The White Holly. commanded by Chief Bos'n Graves. had just tied up in Petersburg and was able to get to Wrangell at pm. Saturday morning. The Sweet Briar left Ketchikan about 1 am. and arrived
 here about am. It is commanded by It. W. J. Felton.
 Crews of both ships Immediately I xraNf aaf5Nwa f1 afH @En f<sn~4 Sfu.