GADSDEN HOTEL BURNS; LOSS $200,000

Douglas Daily Dispatch, Feb 8, 1928 pages 1 & 10

Transcribed by Jean Walker, June 2024

FAMOUS HOSTELRY IS TOTALLY DESTROYED IN EARLY MORNING

Guests Are All Safely Removed From Burning Structure Before Walls Start Caving in; Heroic Rescue Work Is Performed by Volunteers Observing the Fire From Nearby Restaurants; Women Carried From Flaming Structure.

LOSS COVERED BY INSURANCE

Flames Had Gained Such Headway When Fire Department Reached the Scene That Effort Were Directed Chiefly to Preventing the Spread of the Fire to Adjoining Buildings, as Hotel Building Was Already Doomed.

(Statement by F. O. Mackey, owner of the Gadsden hotel on arrival from El Paso).

Advised of the fire in the Gadsden by my wife this morning, I hurried to Douglas from El Paso just as rapidly as I safely could, and let me say now, that it was a great relief to me to know that every guest got out safely. Our financial loss isn't a thing to worry about. The happy fact is that there were no life lost and no serious injury."

As to what our plans for the future will be, it would be rash to attempt to make any announcement tonight. Necessarily, I must counsel with people closely interested with me in the enterprise. Our plans are still to be developed. That may take a couple or three days but we shall make an announcement just as soon as we arrive at a decision."

Fire destroyed the Gadsden hotel block yesterday entailing a loss estimated at about $200,000. The hotel was gutted from basement to attic and every individual business occupying the shops about the hotel lobby was either destroyed by the flames or driven from the quarters with attendant losses.

The Douglas Chamber of Commerce and Borderland Climate club, occupying a joint office at the corner of the block, sustained a total loss of furniture, fixtures and records together with a large stock of publicity matter. The haberdashery owned by Meredith and Wimberly on G avenue was driven into the street, a portion of the stock being carried out but a substantial loss being sustained by this firm. There was a considerable portion of their stock stored in the basement and this was all lost. The barbershop, the furniture and fixtures of which were owned by the hotel but leased by J. W. Rogers who employed as his assistant Charles DeWitt, was a total loss. The beauty parlor on 11th street at the street entrance of the hotel, owned and operated by Mrs. Margaret Holtry, was saved by the fixtures being carried across the street to Miller's cafe and placed there for storage. The soft drink and cigar business owned by John H. Scott was a complete loss. The engineering offices of H. C. Beauchamp occupying a room at the rear of the hotel office was a complete loss.

Alarm Sounded About 5:12

The fire was first discovered probably about 20 minutes before 5 a. m. by people a mile or two from the hotel but it was probably not far from 5:12 when the alarm sent in from Box 21 at the corner of G avenue and 77th street by James Hall, a driver for the Douglas Dairy Company, rang in at the central station. Within less than four minutes of that time there was water pouring into the flames and in very short time later there were four streams of water going into the fire. The entire force of ten firemen and Chief William J. Nemeck aided by half a dozen volunteers soon had four streams playing into the fire but it was a hopeless fight from the first as the long time that had elapsed from its origin until the firemen were called had allowed it a chance to spread completely under the roof and between the partitions so that it was the opinion expressed by those who witnessed it and are familiar with such matters that it could not have been saved with half a dozen fire departments on the job.

Restaurant Men Alarm Guests

It appears that the fire must have started at some point in the southwest corner of the hotel building. But it had extended entirely along the side of the west wing roof and was breaking out at the northwest corner about the time that it was discovered by three or four people near the hotel at almost the same moment. There was a glare of the flame on the glazing of the Phelps Dodge mercantile structure that flashed into the Richelieu restaurant and caused the proprietor, Gus Tounzos, to go across the street to see the cause and seeing it was the hotel aflame, he ran at once to the office to notify the clerk on duty. Almost as he ran into the hotel, Pete Drake, chef at Miler's cafe, came into the lobby from the north door and started the alarm from having seen the flames on the north side, having first told telephone central to call the firemen. Soon thereafter, John B. Hart proprietor of Hart's cafe, who, like the other men had started his day's work in getting ready for the breakfast, came running to the scene to help alarm the guests in the hotel about that time, too. Emiliano Kota, an employe (sic) in the Pure Food Bakery, ran into the fire station and notified the firemen of the trouble.

Switchmen Carry People Out

Also, there were two switchmen on the night crew in the Southern Pacific yards who had a share in the discovery of the fire and it would appear that E. J. Gilmet and J. T. Creswick, the switchmen, were the first to start the work of rescuing the hotel guests from danger of death in the flames. Gilmet was with his crew at the yards only a few rods (sic) away when he discovered what seemed to be flames, his attention being directed to it by the colored man who works as swamper and dishwasher at the Miller cafe. Telling the colored man to sound an alarm, Gilmet ran to the upper floors of the hotel and started alarming the roomers, breaking in doors where he could not otherwise alarm them and finally carrying out one or two of the women.

It is the statement of Gilmet that the first flames he saw indicated that the fire started probably in the basement and burned up through the freight elevator shaft. He says that this is substantiated in the fact that there appeared to be heat in the lower part of the hotel all the time and that in some portions when he was working to get people out, that the floor was hot under his feet indicated that already the flames were working between the floor and the plastering of the ceiling of the room below. It is Gilmet's belief that the fire did really originate in the basement, probably in the furnace room, and traveled up and thence along the roof where it was seen by people at the smelter and the road by the fair grounds as well.

Drake's Experience

Pete Drake, of Miller's cafe, tells this story of his discovery and experience with the fire:

"I came to the cafe at my usual time, shortly before 4:20 and there appeared nothing unusual around. The air was chilly and I met a couple of the boys of the police force who remarked on the chilliness and they stepped into the cafe and had a cup of coffee. Then they went away and I turned to my work. The time passed quickly and the milkman came. That was just a few minutes after 5 a. m. I think. I went to the side door to take the milk in and just as I opened it, I got the flash of flames and at the same time, Jim Hall, the drive (sic) remarked, 'Your neighbor has a fire.' The flames were then showing quite bright at the upper part of the roof. I suggested to Hall that he go and ring in an alarm and I went to the telephone, lifted the receiver and telephone central responded and I told her to tell the department the Gadsden hotel was on fire. Then I ran across the street to give an alarm there."

Finds Tountos At Hotel

"When I got there, or about the time I got there, Gus Tountos also came in and we both set about alarming people and there were others engaged in the same effort. That, in my judgment, is the only thing that made it possible to get them all out as the fire spread very rapidly from then."

"The act of Emiliano Kota also helped get results. He works at the Pure Food bakery and he ran to the department to alarm the men when he saw what the situation was."

H. G. Watson, a dairyman serving the Douglas milk consumers, told of seeing the flames as he left his dairy and he fixes the time rather definitely at about 4:40. He says that he kept watching the flames and that it was apparent from the first that there was a fire in the roof of the Gadsden.

Watson Praises Firemen

He traveled on, feeling sure that the alarm had been sounded and that the firemen were fighting the flames. He delivered milk to patrons in two blocks of his route and then decided that he would travel down to ascertain what the situation was and he got to G avenue and 11th street just as Hall was pulling the alarm, so that he also supports the view that the alarm was sounded about 5:12. At that moment he say, (sic) it would have been impossible, in his opinion, to have saved the building, and having been present when the alarm was sounded, he thinks that the firemen made a good showing in getting the lines of water going.

There was nothing especially spectacular about the fire, due in a measure to the fact there was no wind. That proved a fortunate fact, in the opinion of Chief Nemeck. There was only a gentle drift of air that was augmented somewhat into the proportions of a draft when the heat of the blaze affected it after the hotel was well in flames. That carried to the south from the burning building and therein was one of the dangers because just 50 feet away stood the big department store of the Phelps Dodge Mercantile company and another 150 feet the First National Bank.

Phelps Dodge Threatened

Sensing the possibility of danger, the firemen quickly ran a line of water to the top of the Phelps Dodge structure when it had been made apparent that the hotel block could not be saved. Finally two hoses were carried to the top of this building and none too soon for already there were flame spots on the roof and others broke out from time to time.

By 8:30 Chief Nemeck says he felt certain that the department had won the fight to keep the fire within the hotel and that the flames would be kept within the walls of the doomed hotel block. He said that during the fight they had been running water into it under pressure at the rate of 950 gallons a minute and that when the success was in sight, he changed the tactics somewhat and reduced the pumpage but not until he knew that the fire was under control.

When the department arrived at the scene, it was so apparent that a big fight was on hand that every member of the department able for service was called to the fire and went to work. But with four lines of hose to man, ten men are not sufficient and the handicap was a compelling one but there seemed, for the moment, no means of overcoming it. Chief Nemeck tried to draft some bystanders but with no great success because volunteers are not always capable of handling fire hose in fighting flames. About 6 o'clock, however, a relief force came to the rescue in the form of the employes (sic) of the Arizona Edison company.

Electric Company Aids

Manager Joseph P. Sexton, sensing the problems ahead, had called out his linemen and electricians and they were sent to help the firemen. The relief probably made it possible to save the Phelps Dodge block for it was because of man power that it was possible to get the water to the top of that building and check the flame spots as they started from time to time.

Colored Boys Good Aids Chief Says

Interesting in connection with the volunteer fire fighters is the fact that Lee Giever, a colored boy who is employed at the Calumet hospital, saw the fire and it stirred him to quick action. He went down and offered his services and did whatever he was asked to or could do until the noon hour.

Chief Nemeck says that Clover took all sorts of risks and make (sic) a splendid helper, as did two or three other colored boys who also joined the force as volunteers. Chief Nemeck says that he remembered Glover's work because he knew him personally and that the boy was intitled to praise for his services.

High School Boys Work

Another and to Chief Nemeck a most acceptable assistance in the fight of the fire came from a group of high school boys. "Those high school boys are entitled to high praise," said Chief Nemeck. "I know I was criticized for allowing them to help but there had to be assistance and there seemed to be no other source. They offered, I accepted. I believe it was right and proper and I am under great obligations to those boys and I feel that they are entitled to commendation from citizens in general for what they did. They were real works."

Three Are Injured

One of the early misfortunes of the fire to the department came when Assistant Fire Chief Hugh Kelley suffered a severe injury to his right foot and also to his right arm when a cornice struck him as it fell when burned off. His toe was so severely mashed that the attending surgeon stated it will require two or three weeks for it to heal and be well again. His shoulder is less severely wounded. Another young man fell on the stairs and required three stitches to close the scalp wound. Chief Nemeck suffered a very severe mash of the middle finger on his left hand also early in the fight.

Among others of the men who were working Monday night or those to arrive because of the fire alarm early after the fire got going were Roy Brown, H. W. Lynn and M. Gamm, of the crews in the railroad yards. The assisted their fellow workmen and the police in getting the guests all out of the burning building. One whose last name is McGinn, proved to be one of the most effective announcers of fire as well as helpers otherwise, according to some who were present.

GADSDEN HOTEL      GADSDEN SOLD

USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for commercial presentation by any other organization.

---