Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 140, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1904 — GREAT LOSS BY FIRE. [ARTICLE]

GREAT LOSS BY FIRE.

MINNEAPOLIS DEVASTATED BY FIERCE FLAMESL N Part of BnaineM Section la Destroyed— Property Worth $700,000 Goes Up in Smoke and Three Men Are KilledBig Stores Ruined. Three killed and property valued at $700,000 destroyed is the result of a disastrous fire which, for nearly six hours threatened the destruction of the entire business portion of Minneapolis Tuesday night and enrly Wednesday morning. The entire fire department of the city, assisted by relief companies from St. Paul, battled heroically with the raging flumes, which were fanned by a brisk northwest wind, until 4 o’clock before the fire was placed under control. The firemen permitted the fire to burn itself out in one or two of the buildings almost destroyed and directed most of their work entirely in an effort to save the buildings in close proximity. The fire started in the photographic svipply house of O. H. Peck & Co., on sth street and Ist avenue south, and in less than one-lialf hour this building was a mass of wreckage. Next to the Peck building is the furniture supply house of Boutelle Brothers, the largest house of its kind in the Northwest. Sparks Cause Other Fires. This building soon caught fire and burned, the sparks from it, wafted blocks by the cold north wind, causing several small fires throughout the city. Firemen of Minneapolis and St. Paul paid no attention to the burning buildings but gave all their efforts toward saving property within the block by throwing water on the adjoining property. Boutell Brothers’ and Peck’s stores are total wrecks, and though the Powers Mercantile store was saved from the flames it was damaged to the extent of a million or more by water. Every electric light in the city was burned out and the dense smoke greatly hampered the firemen in their work. One man was killed by the burning of a live wire which dropped in the street. It is reported that many others have beenHnjured by wires. In the front of the burning Boutell Brothers building there stood a street car totally demolished by a fallen electric line pole, from which several live wires were burned. Without doubt the conflagration was the most disastrous that has ever visited the city, through the loss of life and property, striking the richest and biggest firms of the city. With the firemen working on Boutell Brothers’ building, the walls fell with a crash. Two firemen were seen in ths glare that lighted the whole city to be buried beneath the avalanche of brick and mortar.