Fire in Muscatine 1953

KAUTZ, ROMIG

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 2/9/2008 at 19:25:15

Source: The Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette, Burlington Iowa, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 1953.

Bakery Burns
Loss in Fire at Muscatine Nearly $200,000.

MUSCATINE (AP) A downtown fire early Wednesday burned out the interior of the three-story Kautz Baking Co. building, damaged several other business houses and caused loss on which estimates ranged up to $200,000.

Two women, Mrs. Roy Kautz, Sr., and Mrs. Ira Romig, escapted safely from a third-floor apartment in the bakery building but lost their belongings.

The fire broke out shortly after midnight and it took four hours to get it under control. Cause of the fire was not known but firemen said it may have started in the bakery basement and spread upward through an elevator shaft. ...