Fireworks Were Cause of Fire - 1904

BUETELL

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 1/27/2016 at 21:46:19

Dubuque Telegraph Herald, July 17, 1904

FIREWORKS WERE
CAUSE OF
FIRE
~
THE FIREMEN HAD DIFFICULT
TIME DODGING SKY ROCKETS
ROMAN CANDLES, ETC.
~
The small blaze at Buetell Bros’. House on Clay Street between Eighth and Ninth Streets proved very warm for the firemen, although it did not appear so on the outside, because the fire was in the fireworks department and the cause of the fire was the undue celebration of the Fourth by the tired and anxious Roman candles, sky rockets, etc.

The downtown companies of the fire department were called out and when they arrived on the scene they saw a blaze issuing from the rear window and smoke came from the front part in great volumes. One company went in the alley way and fought the fire. They had one hose and when the first man stood upon the top step of the ladder, he saw sky rockets and the balls from Roman candles going in every direction. The caps, torpedoes, cannon crackers, and everything else in the line of fireworks commenced to shoot about him. He managed to gain an entrance and the man that followed him experienced the same thing. In fact, the firemen were kept busy for a couple of minutes dodging sky rockets before they could get down to the real work. Then water was played on the mass of wriggling powder, fuse and paper and in a short time the room was flooded and smoke filled the building. On the outside it looked like a big fire, but at the same time the firemen were trying to shut off the smoke.

No water was thrown from the front end, although the ladder had been raised to an even position with the third floor. The water thrown from the rear fell to the next floor, and damaged considerable stock.

A general summary of the damage accounts for several hundred dollars loss.