Fire Destroys Bakery;

Damages Four Firms

320 S. Main

["Ottawa Herald," 16 Oct 1965, page 1]

A raging fire Friday night gutted one building and seriously damaged three others in the 200 block on South Main. Preliminary estimates of damage made by local insurance men put the losses in excess of $100,000.

Gutted was the bakery building at 320 South Main. The building which was valued in excess of $20,000 is owned by Ottawa University. The lower floor which has housed a bakery many years was not occupied at the time. The second floor was being used by two tenants.

Severely damaged were Butlers Music Store, 322 South Main, Bill Wright's Photography studio, 324 South Main, and the Snyder Pharmacy, 318 South Main.

Suffering smoke damage was Quin Furniture, 326 South Main. Some smoke was in the office of Dr. Arvid Berglund, 316 South Main. The roof of his building suffered some damage.

Commissioner of streets and utilities, Lawrence Wightman said today that "without the high school and Ottawa University students who pitched in, we might have lost most of the block."

Five firemen and the assistant chief, Junior Diamond, answered the call when it came in. Four off duty firemen showed up shortly after the alarm was sounded.

But OU and Ottawa High students supplied the muscle and manned the hoses in the two hour battle to control the blaze.

Diamond said today that the alarm came in at 11:20 p.m. First report was "smoke in Butler's store." As fireman manned their trucks, David Bechtle, who was driving down Walnut, stopped and told firemen he saw flames at the rear of the bakery building.

This morning, diamond, acting in the absence of Chief Harry Gilliland who is on vacation, said that so far the cause of the blaze has not been determined. He said it apparently started in the rear of the bakery building, on the second floor.

Investigation today revealed that two rooms at the rear of the bakery building were in use last night. The rooms are used by Alcoholic Anonymous. Six members of the AA group attended the meeting last night. The meeting broke up around 10 p.m.

One members said this morning "we triple checked before we left" to make sure no cigarettes were left burning and the coffee pot was cleaned and unplugged.

Diamond said the five department answered the alarm with two pumpers and five men, laying one line south along the alley and hooking it into the water main on Third street. Two other lines were hooked into the plug at third and Main to handle the front end of the buildings.

Later the department spotted another truck to the south end of the block and led additional lines down the alley to fight the blaze at the rear.

"The fire had a big start on us," Diamond said. "Flames were already through the roof of the bakery building when we arrived."

Attempts were made to enter the bakery from the rear of the second floor but the blaze was too hot. Firemen and volunteers were forced to stand back on a rear carport and storage room and play streams of water through its windows.

The bakery building was willed to Ottawa University by the late Bill Swift. The University has had possession of the building about 18 months. An OU official said today that the workmen are barricading the rear of the structure and a decision on action to be taken will be made in several weeks.

Apparently the blaze worked its way quickly through the roof of the bakery and between the second floor false ceiling and roof. Soon the rear of the Butler building was ablaze and the flames crept through the rear of that structure to set afire the roof of the Wright building to the south.

An hour after the blaze started, flames broke through the front of the bakery building. Firemen and volunteers played two heavy streams of water through the front and put two more hoses to each side to attack the fire from the roofs of nearby buildings.

The city water and light plant sent its snorkel truck to the front of the bakery building and a fireman climbed the extension ladder and played a stream into the front part of the second floor.

"Boy, did I wish for our new snorkel truck," Diamond said this morning. If we had it in operation we could have cut loss in half."

Nearly two years ago the city ordered a snorkel truck with a long extension ladder and a fire platform which would allow firemen to get above a blaze such as the one Friday night. A foul up between various manufacturing plants has delayed delivery of the truck.

This morning Diamond surveyed damage and said that the bakery building could be considered a "total loss." Value of the property was estimated as being in excess of $20,000."

In the front of the bakery building Dr. Lewis Spencer, Ottawa University, maintained an office. Dr. Spencer is one of the county's leading authorities on radioactive shielding and is a federal consultant. He is presently in Washington, D.C.

Many of his valuable papers were stored in the office. Most of Spencer's records and personal library were lost in the blaze. However, it was reported today that while originals of his papers were lost, two duplicate sets exist. His bibliography and a number of books out of print were feared lost in the blaze.

South of the bakery building, the worst damage was from fire, smoke and water in the Butler building. Walter Butler, who owns the building and operated the music store, has no loss estimate this morning.

The second floor rear of the building was burned away. Water damage to studio rooms on the second floor was severe and merchandise on the first floor was badly damaged by water and smoke.

He said several valuable pianos and organs on the second floor were lost. Asked about his valuable collection of antique musical ....