October a time to salute firefighters in Negaunee
The fall colors are vibrant in Negaunee’s City Cemetery, where a memorial and plaque mark the names of firemen now deceased who have served with the Negaunee Fire Department. (Photo courtesy Virginia Paulson)
This is a closeup of the plaque marking the passing of Negaunee firefighters who served the city from the department’s founding in 1868 through 1925. (Photo courtesy Virginia Paulson)
The fall colors are vibrant in Negaunee’s City Cemetery, where a memorial and plaque mark the names of firemen now deceased who have served with the Negaunee Fire Department. (Photo courtesy Virginia Paulson)
This is a closeup of the plaque marking the passing of Negaunee firefighters who served the city from the department’s founding in 1868 through 1925. (Photo courtesy Virginia Paulson)
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October is Fire Prevention Month and we are reminded to check our homes for any unsafe conditions and to take precautions with any hazardous materials.
And it's a good time to honor the firemen, both past and present, who put their lives in harm's way.
Negaunee has had its shares of fires. The Iron Street fire in February 1916 destroyed buildings that were erected between the 1870s and 1890s.
Two business blocks, starting at Silver Street going west, consisted of five stores with residences upstairs. Being wooden structures, they were completely destroyed, but five families escaped without any injuries.
Cause of the fire was believed to have originated on the second floor of the Kuhlman building. This building was used by Swanos and Chase for their undertaking business. It’s possible that chemicals used in the business ignited and caused the fire.
In April 1919, the St. Paul Catholic Church, which also was a frame structure, was leveled, and the winds were very strong at the time and it looked as though every frame building from Case Street to Iron Street would be gone.
The Sisters of St. Joseph went into the church and removed the communion ware. The furnace had been started up to prepare for services that evening, and it was determined that a spark may have landed in a place of dry timbers.
Fire destroyed the Negaunee Hospital on Teal Lake Avenue (now the Masonic Lodge). Mrs. Johanna Sjolund and William Eddy, who were patients, lost their lives, and the orderly, Axel Martinson, who tried to save Mrs. Sjolund, also died. Mrs. Sjolund was to have been discharged from the hospital that day.
Axel Martinson’s mother received the Carnegie Medal of Honor, which is on display at the Negaunee Historical Society Museum. On a bookmark found in Axel's belongings was the inscription, "Greater love hath no man than to give his life for a fellow man."
The historic Breitung Hotel was reduced to a heap of ashes on Jan. 15, 1988. Built in 1879, the three-story brick building was constructed by cigar manufacturer Andrew Suess, and was named after his friend Edward Breitung, who developed several mines and helped Suess financially.
With 50 guest rooms, a bar, billiards room and a restaurant, the hotel was considered a showplace in the Upper Peninsula. Its guests included U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland; Western hero Buffalo Bill Cody; Jesse Stone, the founder of the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco); and sausage baron Oscar Mayer.
The fire was considered arson by a transient and the hotel was unoccupied at the time.
On Feb. 6, 1947, Negaunee police officers Dominic Francisco, Frank Bessolo and Nestor Erkkila were on patrol when they discovered a fire at Wolfe Motors, consisting of Arts Auto Repair and Lincoln Street Body Shop.
While the fire raged, Stu Abbott finished putting a wheel on a car in his shop and saved the car, along with a few others that were in for repair. Twenty cars were destroyed and the firemen had to deal with zero-degree temperatures.
The building on the corner of Jackson Street and Pioneer Avenue went up in flames on Feb. 9, 1960. It was the home of Selin's Furniture Store and Warehouse. In Negaunee's earlier days, it was the McDonald Opera House.
In the mid-1960s, the Viga Bowling Alleys on the west end of Iron Street were destroyed by fire. This building was also a landmark in the early years of the city, operating as the Kings Inn.
On Feb. 5, 1979, an early morning fire gutted a portion of the Eagles Club on Iron Street. Below-zero temperatures and a low wind-chill factor forced firemen into working half-hour shifts battling the blaze.
On March 16, 1986, fire destroyed Karki's Jewelry and Paul Remillard's barber shop on Iron Street. It started in the basement and quickly spread to the upper floors and two apartments were destroyed.
On May 22, 1986, a fire gutted a two-story building that caused extensive damage to the VFW Post and Barr's Bar. The fire began in a vacant building at 505 Iron St.
A fire in a 10-unit apartment building on Maas Street left 23 people homeless on Aug. 7, 1986. That fire was ruled accidental.
A blaze destroyed a residence on Gold Street when four men were trying to start a truck and the gasoline in the carburetor exploded. The garage was below the house and it quickly set the house afire. No one was injured.
Two families escaped a burning home on Case Street and a woman lost her life in a home on Main Street. More complete stories on these fires can be found at the museum.
Virginia Paulson has been a trustee with the Negaunee Historical Society for more than two decades, previously having been on the Negaunee Public Schools board of education for 23 years and MARESA board for 17 years.